EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL OSNABRUECK 2011 - Emaf

There is no causal story in the conventional sense; as one of the film characters, falling out
of her role, as it were, records a formal gesture that, so to speak, shapes the entire film: ›They
were digging for the story, but only hit upon the ideas of others.‹ Meeting concretely are the
following apparitions or revenants of film history: Hari (Solaris, Andrej Tarkovsky), Giuliana
alias Julian (Il Deserto Rosso, Michelangelo Antonioni), and Nana (Vivre sa Vie, Jean-Luc Godard).
Along with quotations of their roles, also stylistic and auditory elements of the reference
material find their way into the film. But with Ruhm, the characters, or rather, their descriptions
do not appear as pure reference elements, but instead, they are in the best sense
of the word debased, and continued with the help of stylistic means from, for example, musicals,
slapstick, Mangas, and computer language. The reference instead mutates to a gesture
of reverence, an affective dedication that is enhanced with contemporary aspects, including
biographical ones. Driven by cinematic figures, Ruhm creates a fascinating, attractive,
theatrical film space in word, sound, and image, which at the same time serves as a performance
stage for three outstanding actors. (Dietmar Schwärzler, translation: Lisa
Rosenblatt)
Constanze Ruhm, *1965 in Vienna. She studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and
at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt. Since 1990, her installations have been shown at international
exhibitions, and retrospectives of her films and videos have been presented. She is also
active as an author and curator (e.g. Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Secession Vienna, ZKM Karlsruhe,
...). Her work develops a contemporary art praxis that investigates the interaction between
film/filmtheory, theatrical forms andNew Media, especially in regard to questions of female
identity. From 2004-2006 she has been professor of film and video at Merz-Academy in
Stuttgart. Since 2006 she is professor of art and media at the University of Fine Arts in Vienna.
�A / D 2010, Video, 69:00
�Director, script Constanze Ruhm
�Camera Eduardo Lopes
�Editing Constanze Ruhm, Christine Lang
�Distribution sixpackfilm
35