Home

Christoph Schlingensief
Animatograph-Namibia-Edition. (Utgard - The African Twintowers), 2005

Photo: Courtesy Aino Laberenz | Estate Christoph Schlingensief

Commissions & Productions

Commissions

Collection

Twelve-channel video installation, color, sound
Videos with varying durations (from 1 min 7 sec to 14 hrs 38 min)
Overall dimensions variable
Co-produced by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary; in collaboration with Sammlung Julia Stoschek, Burgtheater Vienna, Film Funds in Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Filmstiftung NRW, Arte/Theaterkanal, Volksbühne, Berlin
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection

Christph Schlingensief toured the Animatograph around countries including Iceland and, in 2005, Namibia, where he constructed his rotating stage in the slums of the former German colonial town of Lüderitz and shot a never-finished film about colonial guilt and 9/11. That chaotic shoot is recorded in the film - The African Twintowers.
The script is about Richard Wagner, about 9/11, about Hagen von Tronje, about Hereros alive and dead, about ghosts of the past and the present. It was abandoned at day 2.
What followed were 25 days showing Christoph Schlingensief at his artistic and image-generating best, gushing with ideas and concepts, attempting to find the right form of filmic expression after a decade in theatre, performance arts and visual arts.

Filmgalerie 451 produced a documentary about this performative interaction, entitled "Lost in Namibia - a documentary about Christoph Schlingensief's last, unfinished film - commented by himself".

*1960 in Oberhausen, Germany | † 2010 in Berlin, Germany

Christoph Schlingensief was a German theatre director, performance artist and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals, often accompanied by public controversies. Already as a young man Schlingensief had organized art events in the cellar of his parents' house, and local artists such as Helge Schneider or Theo Jörgensmann performed in his early short films. He considered himself a 'provocatively thoughtful' artist. He created numerous controversial and provocative theatre pieces as well as films, his former mentor being filmmaker and media artist Werner Nekes.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.

Artist's website:

http://www.schlingensief.com/start.php

RELATED PROGRAM

Elmgreen & Dragset
Inside / Powerless Structures, Fig. 334, 2003

Christoph Schlingensief
Manaus, 2007

Christoph Schlingensief
stahlweg I-XII, 2006

Christoph Schlingensief
Hase Fett, 2008

Christoph Schlingensief
Cello TV, 2008

Artists

Christoph Schlingensief

Christoph SchlingensiefAnimatograph-Namibia-Edition. (Utgard - The African Twintowers), 2005

Christoph Schlingensief
Animatograph-Namibia-Edition. (Utgard - The African Twintowers), 2005