Art and creative work is not only about finding great ideas. Our best ideas spring from our deepest needs, from within. A powerful creative process can be triggered unconsciously, through emotional expression in a self-portrait. We access a limit situation, we are vulnerable and therefore open to the creative inner fire… A ‘perfect’ artwork is produced without our control or awareness, because in the self-portrait we are, at the same time, author, subject and spectator, and the dynamics between the three roles stimulate our unconscious to speak with the language of art.

Working on the in-depth perception of the works produced allows us to study how our images can be perceived by others and to discover that our perception constantly changes in time. The artworks are surrogates of the human being: they possess an amazing plasticity and multiplicity of possible meanings, a powerful connection with time and a particular harmony of visual elements.

On the first day of the self-portrait workshop, alone in a professional photo studio set up by Nuñez at filmArche, each participant will take collaborative self-portraits, reacting to the artist’s instructions, and later work on the ever-changing perception and choice of the images produced with the help of our methodology of perception. The group will work on the perception of given images and will take new photographs with their camera or phone. On the second day, participants will work in small groups on their perception and storytelling of others’ images and later share their views with the whole group.

The workshop will be held in English.

Together with Cristina we will learn:

• Methodology of perception – how to choose the best image
• Characteristics of an art work
• Transforming an experience into photography
• Stimulate creative process by means of emotional expression

Participants should:

• bring camera or smartphone, laptop, usb stick
• on the 2nd day only: bring pre-selected family picture that show clearly faces. The older, the better.
• watch Nuñez’s two videos:

Someone to Love, her autobiography: https://vimeo.com/47436146
Higher Self, about the method and its philosophy: https://vimeo.com/47436147

For more information and to register, please contact Pi Altendorfer at to.pi@posteo.de

Born in 1962, Cristina Nuñez is a self-taught artist, specialized in autobiographical art, whose work has been published, multi-awarded and exhibited internationally in venues such as the Mois de la Photo di Montreal, Casino of Luxemburg, MUSAC, MUFOCO, etc., and is part of private and public collections. Nuñez is also a facilitator of transformative self-portrait with The Self-Portrait Experience, a method she created in 2005 from her own personal experience, and which she teaches in her workshops around the globe in art schools, universities, museums, prisons, mental health centres, rehab centres and companies as an instrument for individual and social transformation, and social activism. Nuñez is currently completing her PhD in photography on her practice and methodology at the School of Art, University of Derby, UK. She lives and works in Morbio Inferiore (Switzerland).

To find out more about Cristina Nuñez and The Self-Portait Experience, please visit the websites:
https://cristinanunez.com/
http://selfportrait-experience.com/

Date: 2-3.06.2018
Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM both days
Place: filmArche, Lahnstraße 25, Berlin
Room: S1 & Foyer
Language: English

SPEAKING NEAR BY / Part 2

Essay film and video seminar, Filmarche Berlin, 9th and 10th June 2018

Film/ Video Essay is an in-between genre, situated between documentary and fiction, art and politics. It transgresses the border of genres and does not follow a clear narrative. Often it deals with issues like memory, reflection, autobiogaphy, political/ social analyses and often also with the visual form itself.

To „essay“ means “to assay”, „to weigh“, as well as „to attempt“, suggesting an open ended, evaluated search. But this objective search is haunted and constrained by the presence of individual subjectivity. (Nora M. Alter)

On the 9th and 10th June, we will see films and videos, read excerpts of texts and analyse the different meanings of an “essay” beginning in literature, moving to film and video art. We will read a text by Walter Benjamin “The Author as Producer” and analyse it in context to our positions as filmmakers and visual artists. We will talk about: memory in essay, consciousness of the material, critique of ideology, questions of the position of the film / artwork within its relations of production.

On the second day let´s go on with the essayistic experiment we did in January, converting it into a collective narrative (you can participate also when you´ve not been in part 1).

Structure

1th day: – Looking at essay films and videos – Re-reading Walter Benjamin “The Author as Producer” (Der Autor als Produzent) , thinking the text in relation to our positions as filmmakers.

2th day: – Looking at essay films and videos – excerpts of “CHILDREN OF SRIKANDI” by The Children of Srikandi Collective, talking about collaborative filmmaking

For the essayistic experiment: please bring a picture or an object to the seminar which is subjectivly related to one of your films, your basic inspiration or your next project.

Films and excerpts we will see by: Hans Richter, Lynne Sachs, Chantal Ackerman, Ruth Beckermann, Isaak Julian, Shelly Silver, Angelika Levi, and others.

Angelika Levi studierte von 1985 bis `91 an der Deutschen Film- und Fernseh-akademie Berlin (dffb). Seit 1985 werden ihre Arbeiten auf internationalen Filmfestivals, in Ausstellungen und im Kino gezeigt. Ihr erster Langfilm „Mein Leben Teil 2“ wurde erstaufgeführt in der Sektion Internationales Forum des Jungen Films der Berlinale 2003 und gewann verschiedene Preise. Auch „Children of Srikandi“ gewann mehrere Preise nach seiner Premiere auf der Berlinale 2012 in der Sektion Panorama. „Miete essen Seele auf“ ist Levis letzte Arbeit und war Teil der Ausstellung „Wohnungsfrage“ im Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin 2015. Neben eigenen Arbeiten unterrichtet sie Stoffentwicklung und Dramaturgie und arbeitet als Cutterin. Angelika Levi lebt in Berlin. Ihre Arbeiten befinden sich im Verleih Arsenal- Institut für Film und Videokunst.

Ausgewählte Kurzfilme: Ariel 1984, 16mm, 15 min, Co-Regie: Lilly Grote. Sexparty, 1987, Super-8, 10min. Faust aufs Auge 1988 (Fist on your eye) Video, 5min, Co-Regie: Antje Schäfer. Auf gehts. Aber wohin? (Off we go. But Where?) 1989, 16mm, 20 min. Das kleine Objekt a (The little object a) 1991, 16mm, 30min. Desireé & Polylepis 1994, 35mm, 9 min. Freunde (Friends) 1995, Super-8, 3 min. Hay que gastar dinero (You have to spend money) 2004, Videoinstallation, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2004.

Langfilme: Mein Leben Teil 2 (My life part 2) 2003, 35mm, 90 min, Berlinale/ Forum 2003, Absent Present 2010, Digital, 85 min, Mostra Internacional de Films de Donnes, Barcelona. Anak Anak Srikandi (Children of Srikandi) 2012, Digital, 75min, by The Children of Srikandi Collective. 62. Berlinale/ Panorama Dokumente. Miete Essen Seele Auf (arte, 54 min, co-regie Christoph Dreher) Miete Essen Seele Auf II (3 Kanal Installation für die Ausstellung Wohnungsfrage, im Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 22. Oktober bis 14 Dezember 2015) Miete essen Seele auf III (65 min, Kinofassung)

Lectures und Seminare, Auswahl: Istanbul Documentarist Filmfestival, „Thinking Memory in concept of film“. Filmarche, Berlin, Gemischte Erzählformen im Film, Bildersprache und Ästhetik”. Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Lecture/ Seminar: „Pedagogías críticas de la imagen“. Frankfurt, Kinothek Asta Nilsen, vagabonding reel to real, „Dis-Kontinuitäten/ Das Familien Super-8 Archiv + eigene Super-8 Filme“. Royal Academy of Arts Copenhagen, Media School, „What I see is life looking at me“- Editing Seminar. Visionary Archive, Arsenal, „Sammeln und Verschwinden – Fragen an mein Material aus Namibia 1991.

2017: Theater Ballhaus Naunynstraße,Berlin, „Kotti is burning“, 55 min, „Kiezmonatsschau“ mit Jugendlichen im Rahmen der Akademie der Autodidakten. Montage der filmischen Installation „Crossings“ von Angela Melitopoulos für die documenta14 in Athen/ Kassel. Dozentin an der Filmarche, Stoffentwicklung der Dokfilmklassen 14 und 16. Workshop “Oppose Othering” beim 17th GoEast – Festival des Mittel- und Osteuropäischen Films, Wiesbaden.

Date: 9-10.06.2018
Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM both days
Place: filmArche, Lahnstraße 25, Berlin
Room: S1 & Foyer
Language: English

fee 100 Euro / discounted fee 80 Euro / fee for supporters 120 Euro