Together with the artist and filmmaker Matt Hulse I have been invited for artist residency at the Jelly Reading to prepare our HEXAGON Project, a film about Reading's multi-purpose venue designed by RJMJ in the late seventies.
Further information you can find here: https://www.jelly.org.uk/, here and on Instagram:
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| John Lautner: Sheats Goldstein Residence, Beverly Hills, Selbstportrait 2017 |
Text veröffentlicht bei Eiskellerberg.TV am 03.06.2021
Wörterbücher wie Duden und Wahrig sind sich einer Meinung, wenn sie die Eleganz auf die äußere Erscheinung und das Verhalten eines Menschen beziehen. Es ist die Rede von elegantem Aussehen, Gewandtheit, Geschmeidigkeit in der Bewegung, von kultivierter Form, es fallen Ausdrücke wie erlesen und harmonisch, sich elegant kleiden, eine elegante Formulierung verwenden und sogar mit einem eleganten Schwung vom Barren abgehen. Neben der Eleganz selbst findet zudem auch der sogenannte Élégant Erwähnung, der gepflegte, stets nach der letzten Mode gekleidete und frisierte Mann.
Aber spätestens die Zeile, in der die Eleganz im Wahrig-Wörterbuch als „feiner, stilsicherer, modischer Geschmack“ definiert wird lässt aufhorchen. Alleine die beiden Begriffe Stil und Geschmack verraten es schon: es ist kompliziert! Wo man auch hinblickt, wird der Begriff der Eleganz durch Ausdrücke beschrieben, die in sich selbst schon ein gesamtes weltanschauliches Konzept tragen und die man nicht so einfach als Synonyme betrachten kann.
Hier greift die Etymolgie helfend ein. Das Adjektiv „elegant“ leitet sich vom französischen „élégant“ ab, das wiederum vom lateinischen „elegans“ abstammt. „Elegans“ bedeutet „wählerisch, geschmackvoll“, abgeleitet vom Verb „eligere“, also „auswählen“. So erklärt sich auch der Begriff „elitär“. Guter Geschmack und die Fähigkeit, auszuwählen stehen also von Anfang an in direkter Verbindung. Auf welcher Grundlage aber wählt man aus? Und setzt die Möglichkeit auszuwählen nicht auch eine gewisse Freiheit voraus?
PINHOLE COMPUTERS is the name of an art and music performance duo whose members are Julia Zinnbauer (Düsseldorf, Germany) and Matt Hulse (London, UK).
For the festival Europe in the City, that takes place in Düsseldorf from 1st to 9th May, they created a short, loopable digital film that signals a message of hope and positive communication between the artists' respective countries, and more broadly throughout the European Union, and indeed potentially the world. Thereby they also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Video; 33.11 min.
Camera, editing, research, text, sound, voice: Julia Zinnbauer; Scotland 2020
In
2020 I spent the summer and early autumn as an artist in residence at
the MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, in the South of Scotland. In this context I
started researching about the English architect Peter Womersley, who
lived and worked almost all his life in Galashiels, a town in the
Scottish Borders.
In the late 1950s Womersley transported the
idea of the modernist bungalow to this rather rural area and also built
several Brutalist buildings, like e.g. the Gala Fairydean Stands. I
travelled to Galashiels twice in order to visit as many of Womersley's
buildings as I could reach by bycicle. I took photos and videos and also
recorded interviews with people who had a personal relationship with
Womersley and his architecture.
Peter Womersley's best friend
was the textile designer Bernat Klein, for whom he designed a bungalow
in the late 1950s and a studio close by in the early 1970s. This artist
friendship is a beautiful link between modernist architecture and the
textile tradition of the South of Scotland, so it was important to me
that two outfits designed by Klein were part of my video. Moreover I
embedded the whole story in the landscape as well as the literature of
this area, as it was in Galashiels where the Scottish author Sir Walter
Scott had lived in the 19th century.
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| Sanquhar Highstreet in August 2020 |
My artist residency at the MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland
In spite of all the complications and restrictions that were caused by the global pandemic that is still going on, this summer I had the opportunity to travel to Scotland. I stayed there as an artist in residence at the MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, in the southwest of the country, not far away from Dumfries. Several months before I was finally allowed to take one the first flights that went to Edinburgh after the lockdown, I started to plan my project for my stay in Sanquhar. It was based on the fact that as a teenager I was seriously eager to learn to play the bagpipes, on my general fascination for the English language, my yearning for Great Britain and also on the story about the old red telephone box that my parents installed in their garden, more than twenty years ago.
In the end I was working on two parallel projects, on a video about Sanquhar itself, that also included the story about the telephone box and the local knitting tradition and also on a second project that dealt with the architecture of Peter Womersley. As this is also a rather extensive story I will describe it in a further article.
The woven Sanquhar Dress
Sanquhar is famous for having the Oldest Post Office in the world that is still in operation. Another important topic is the Sanquhar Knitting Pattern, a black and white pattern that dates back to the 17th century and that is mainly used for gloves.
One of my original ideas for my residency in Sanquhar was to weave a dress out of ribbons that were made in the old textile company that friends of mine are running in Wuppertal. During the industrial revolution and also still in the 20th century Wuppertal was a thriving textile city. Kerstin and Christian Escher's company named Escher Textil dates back to 1849 and today is one of the last textile companies of Wuppertal. They were so kind as to send me a big package full of ribbons to the MERZ Gallerery. By weaving my dress out of their ribbons, improvising and varying the Sanquhar pattern, I aimed at linking the textile tradition of my home area with the textile tradition of Sanquhar.
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| Weaving the sleeve of my Sanquhar-dress out of ribbons produced in Wuppertal |
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| My bagpipe - finally re-assembled in Sanquhar |
Originally
I wanted to do a performance wearing this dress and take
part in the Riding of the Marches, the annual procession that takes
place in Sanquhar each summer - perhaps even with my bagpipe. Unfortunately the Riding of the
Marches was cancelled due to the global pandemic. Nevertheless I went
on with my Sanquhar Project, trying to document what I experienced
and what seemed beautiful and special for me. And I started weaving
the dress.
After several months of closed borders I am very happy to say that I have arrived in Sanquhar, in the South West of Scotland, where I will be staying as an artist in residence at the MERZ Gallery for the next weeks. I'm planning to do an extensive architectural video, create costumes and do a performance.
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| ASTEROIDA. Kurzfilm, Julia Zinnbauer 2014/19, Filmstill |
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| ASTEROIDA. Kurzfilm, Julia Zinnbauer 2014/19, Filmstill |
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| Krefeld 2013 |
