France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

France, détours, 2009 - 2010
Épisode 1, devoir et déroute, 2009

HD video,  colour, 26’36 min
French speaking with English synchronisation

For many decades, from 1877 until 1950, France’s self image as “La Grande Nation” was shaped by a small book: “Le Tour de France par deux enfants” was seminal reading in schools, telling children what it meant and how it felt to be a proud French boy or girl. In1977, French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard produced a counterstatement. In his TV-documentary “France/tour/detour/deux/enfants”, ten year old Camille and Arnaud comment on notions such as liberty and equality, revolution and violence, money and on their individual dreams. What they had to say was a long way away from patriotic common sense.

Since 2009, Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger have embarked upon yet another „De/Tour de France“, again in the format of a TV documentary. They follow Jacques Rancière’s hypothesis that the real has to be fictionalised in order to be thought. The youth they portray does not at all confirm the clichés that media and politics create. In fact, this reality is much more difficult. Capturing its complexity in their films, Moser and Schwinger “re-think” the notion of “France”: as a narrative and a discourse that reestablishes a space for an adolescent’s emancipation. By employing the means of fiction, Moser and Schwinger expose the forces that try to reduce the complexity and openness of social reality, that want to bring regulation and regimentation.

Alles wird wieder gut (from the installation Farewell Letter to The Swiss Workers), 2006

Digital video, 19’56 min, 16/9 Anamorph.
German speaking with English subtitles

In a village of former East Germany, young adults meet with the intention of finding an alternative to isolation and social precariousness while their parents demonstrate in front of the disused factory, as every day of the year for the last 15 years. The young persons decide  to organize a party; it is meant to help them to confront themselves on their divergent opinions as for the model of society to which they aspire. As antidote to exclusion, they choose the debate of ideas. The arrival of a foreign journalist reporting on the region sets off contrasting attitudes: for the oldest, it represents an answer to the wait of a recognition, whereas the younger ones see in it the necessity of freeing themselves from media standardization in order to construct networks of resistance on a local level.

Lenin spent 1914–17 living in exile in Zurich. Before he returned to Russia to play his part in the Revolution, he wrote a letter to the Swiss workers. In it he exhorted them to resist the ‘imperialist war’ and lauded the “proletarian revolution that is beginning in Europe“. Lenin’s social vision has not stood the test of time; nevertheless some of his arguments have taken on a new relevance in the context of recent political events on the world stage. This is where the artists Moser/Schwinger come into the picture.
 
WHAT KIND OF A SOCIETY DO WE REALLY WANT? Responding to Vladimir Lenin’s letter, Moser/Schwinger have realised a video work for the Kunsthaus Zürich, entitled ‘Alles wird wieder gut’ [‘It’ll all turn out alright’], in which they re-address the question of social utopias. What kind of a society would we wish for ourselves? And what social forms are we capable of sustaining? The artists spent a week, not far from Berlin, making a twenty-minute video. The plot revolves around a village community in the East of the reunited Germany, sixteen years after the Berlin Wall came down. Since 1989 unemployed workers have been demonstrating daily outside the gates of their old factory, protesting at the loss of their long-gone jobs. While a group of students in the adjacent village pub discuss their own future and that of their fellow citizens, children are putting on a show in the village church. A boy, playing the part of the young Lenin, cites passages from his farewell letter to the Swiss workers.

REPRESENTING THE PRESENT IN FILMS AND VIDEOS. As in their work ‘Capitulation Project’ – an attempt to understand, in the year 2003, the My Lai massacre perpetrated during the Vietnam War – Moser/Schwinger have again taken a historical process or event as their starting point and examine the representation of victims and perpetrators. They leave viewers with the knowledge that any search for historical truth is doomed to failure. In the work specially made for the Kunsthaus Zürich, they deliberately make a play on the ambiguity of the term ‘farewell letter’, which might be bidding farewell in the usual sense, but could equally well be a letter of dismissal – all too familiar in these times of business closures and reorganisation. As in the work ‘Unexpected Rules’ (2004), with which Moser/Schwinger represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial, once again they are engaging with the issues surrounding representation and communication in the media today. Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger were both employed in the theatre at an earlier stage in their careers, and their art is a mixture of drama, video and installation. In their works they set up a complex interplay of apparent authenticity and subtle deception, which captivates the viewer with its formal precision and emotional intensity.

STOCK EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE AND THE ZURICH CONCRETISTS. In their Kunsthaus exhibition, Moser/Schwinger focus not only on the question of social utopias but also on artistic-aesthetic utopias. In a seventeen-metre wall painting, they deliberately invoke memories of the Zurich Concretists; at the same time they take the notion of Concrete Art ad absurdum. The forms used here do not arise from strict parameters devised by the artists – experimental forms and colours with no connection to the real world – for they derive from economic factors, specifically the performance graphs of Swiss Market Index at the Zürcher Börse Swiss Exchange in 2005.

 Review by Mirjam Varadinis

Cast: Christoph Beuing, Martin Georg Endress, Martin Hohner, Janina Rudenska, Ninoschka Schlothauer, Sebastian Straub, Michael Schumacher, Roger Tebb  and Ivaldo Bessière, Steffen Gloge, Andreas Gutzeit, Thomas Hartmann, Dirk Hermann, Doris Haake, Jasmin Mensfeld, Julia Mensfeld, John Mensfeld, Marlies Raschke, Detlef Raschke, Siegmar Seeboldt and the inhabitants of Beiersdorf
Production manager: Antonella Kurzen
Camera: Stefan Runge
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Hanna Weissgerber
Camera assistant: Henning Stirner
Sript and Continuity: Ricarda Brand
Driver / Best Boy: Udo Kiene
Music: Rhythm King And Her Friends

Produced by Kunsthaus Zürich and Fine Arts Unternehmen Video + Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Swiss / Germany

Alles wird wieder gut (from the installation Farewell Letter to The Swiss Workers), 2006

Digital video, 19’56 min, 16/9 Anamorph.
German speaking with English subtitles

In a village of former East Germany, young adults meet with the intention of finding an alternative to isolation and social precariousness while their parents demonstrate in front of the disused factory, as every day of the year for the last 15 years. The young persons decide  to organize a party; it is meant to help them to confront themselves on their divergent opinions as for the model of society to which they aspire. As antidote to exclusion, they choose the debate of ideas. The arrival of a foreign journalist reporting on the region sets off contrasting attitudes: for the oldest, it represents an answer to the wait of a recognition, whereas the younger ones see in it the necessity of freeing themselves from media standardization in order to construct networks of resistance on a local level.

Lenin spent 1914–17 living in exile in Zurich. Before he returned to Russia to play his part in the Revolution, he wrote a letter to the Swiss workers. In it he exhorted them to resist the ‘imperialist war’ and lauded the “proletarian revolution that is beginning in Europe“. Lenin’s social vision has not stood the test of time; nevertheless some of his arguments have taken on a new relevance in the context of recent political events on the world stage. This is where the artists Moser/Schwinger come into the picture.
 
WHAT KIND OF A SOCIETY DO WE REALLY WANT? Responding to Vladimir Lenin’s letter, Moser/Schwinger have realised a video work for the Kunsthaus Zürich, entitled ‘Alles wird wieder gut’ [‘It’ll all turn out alright’], in which they re-address the question of social utopias. What kind of a society would we wish for ourselves? And what social forms are we capable of sustaining? The artists spent a week, not far from Berlin, making a twenty-minute video. The plot revolves around a village community in the East of the reunited Germany, sixteen years after the Berlin Wall came down. Since 1989 unemployed workers have been demonstrating daily outside the gates of their old factory, protesting at the loss of their long-gone jobs. While a group of students in the adjacent village pub discuss their own future and that of their fellow citizens, children are putting on a show in the village church. A boy, playing the part of the young Lenin, cites passages from his farewell letter to the Swiss workers.

REPRESENTING THE PRESENT IN FILMS AND VIDEOS. As in their work ‘Capitulation Project’ – an attempt to understand, in the year 2003, the My Lai massacre perpetrated during the Vietnam War – Moser/Schwinger have again taken a historical process or event as their starting point and examine the representation of victims and perpetrators. They leave viewers with the knowledge that any search for historical truth is doomed to failure. In the work specially made for the Kunsthaus Zürich, they deliberately make a play on the ambiguity of the term ‘farewell letter’, which might be bidding farewell in the usual sense, but could equally well be a letter of dismissal – all too familiar in these times of business closures and reorganisation. As in the work ‘Unexpected Rules’ (2004), with which Moser/Schwinger represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial, once again they are engaging with the issues surrounding representation and communication in the media today. Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger were both employed in the theatre at an earlier stage in their careers, and their art is a mixture of drama, video and installation. In their works they set up a complex interplay of apparent authenticity and subtle deception, which captivates the viewer with its formal precision and emotional intensity.

STOCK EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE AND THE ZURICH CONCRETISTS. In their Kunsthaus exhibition, Moser/Schwinger focus not only on the question of social utopias but also on artistic-aesthetic utopias. In a seventeen-metre wall painting, they deliberately invoke memories of the Zurich Concretists; at the same time they take the notion of Concrete Art ad absurdum. The forms used here do not arise from strict parameters devised by the artists – experimental forms and colours with no connection to the real world – for they derive from economic factors, specifically the performance graphs of Swiss Market Index at the Zürcher Börse Swiss Exchange in 2005.

 Review by Mirjam Varadinis

Cast: Christoph Beuing, Martin Georg Endress, Martin Hohner, Janina Rudenska, Ninoschka Schlothauer, Sebastian Straub, Michael Schumacher, Roger Tebb  and Ivaldo Bessière, Steffen Gloge, Andreas Gutzeit, Thomas Hartmann, Dirk Hermann, Doris Haake, Jasmin Mensfeld, Julia Mensfeld, John Mensfeld, Marlies Raschke, Detlef Raschke, Siegmar Seeboldt and the inhabitants of Beiersdorf
Production manager: Antonella Kurzen
Camera: Stefan Runge
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Hanna Weissgerber
Camera assistant: Henning Stirner
Sript and Continuity: Ricarda Brand
Driver / Best Boy: Udo Kiene
Music: Rhythm King And Her Friends

Produced by Kunsthaus Zürich and Fine Arts Unternehmen Video + Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Swiss / Germany

Alles wird wieder gut (from the installation Farewell Letter to The Swiss Workers), 2006

Digital video, 19’56 min, 16/9 Anamorph.
German speaking with English subtitles

In a village of former East Germany, young adults meet with the intention of finding an alternative to isolation and social precariousness while their parents demonstrate in front of the disused factory, as every day of the year for the last 15 years. The young persons decide  to organize a party; it is meant to help them to confront themselves on their divergent opinions as for the model of society to which they aspire. As antidote to exclusion, they choose the debate of ideas. The arrival of a foreign journalist reporting on the region sets off contrasting attitudes: for the oldest, it represents an answer to the wait of a recognition, whereas the younger ones see in it the necessity of freeing themselves from media standardization in order to construct networks of resistance on a local level.

Lenin spent 1914–17 living in exile in Zurich. Before he returned to Russia to play his part in the Revolution, he wrote a letter to the Swiss workers. In it he exhorted them to resist the ‘imperialist war’ and lauded the “proletarian revolution that is beginning in Europe“. Lenin’s social vision has not stood the test of time; nevertheless some of his arguments have taken on a new relevance in the context of recent political events on the world stage. This is where the artists Moser/Schwinger come into the picture.
 
WHAT KIND OF A SOCIETY DO WE REALLY WANT? Responding to Vladimir Lenin’s letter, Moser/Schwinger have realised a video work for the Kunsthaus Zürich, entitled ‘Alles wird wieder gut’ [‘It’ll all turn out alright’], in which they re-address the question of social utopias. What kind of a society would we wish for ourselves? And what social forms are we capable of sustaining? The artists spent a week, not far from Berlin, making a twenty-minute video. The plot revolves around a village community in the East of the reunited Germany, sixteen years after the Berlin Wall came down. Since 1989 unemployed workers have been demonstrating daily outside the gates of their old factory, protesting at the loss of their long-gone jobs. While a group of students in the adjacent village pub discuss their own future and that of their fellow citizens, children are putting on a show in the village church. A boy, playing the part of the young Lenin, cites passages from his farewell letter to the Swiss workers.

REPRESENTING THE PRESENT IN FILMS AND VIDEOS. As in their work ‘Capitulation Project’ – an attempt to understand, in the year 2003, the My Lai massacre perpetrated during the Vietnam War – Moser/Schwinger have again taken a historical process or event as their starting point and examine the representation of victims and perpetrators. They leave viewers with the knowledge that any search for historical truth is doomed to failure. In the work specially made for the Kunsthaus Zürich, they deliberately make a play on the ambiguity of the term ‘farewell letter’, which might be bidding farewell in the usual sense, but could equally well be a letter of dismissal – all too familiar in these times of business closures and reorganisation. As in the work ‘Unexpected Rules’ (2004), with which Moser/Schwinger represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial, once again they are engaging with the issues surrounding representation and communication in the media today. Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger were both employed in the theatre at an earlier stage in their careers, and their art is a mixture of drama, video and installation. In their works they set up a complex interplay of apparent authenticity and subtle deception, which captivates the viewer with its formal precision and emotional intensity.

STOCK EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE AND THE ZURICH CONCRETISTS. In their Kunsthaus exhibition, Moser/Schwinger focus not only on the question of social utopias but also on artistic-aesthetic utopias. In a seventeen-metre wall painting, they deliberately invoke memories of the Zurich Concretists; at the same time they take the notion of Concrete Art ad absurdum. The forms used here do not arise from strict parameters devised by the artists – experimental forms and colours with no connection to the real world – for they derive from economic factors, specifically the performance graphs of Swiss Market Index at the Zürcher Börse Swiss Exchange in 2005.

 Review by Mirjam Varadinis

Cast: Christoph Beuing, Martin Georg Endress, Martin Hohner, Janina Rudenska, Ninoschka Schlothauer, Sebastian Straub, Michael Schumacher, Roger Tebb  and Ivaldo Bessière, Steffen Gloge, Andreas Gutzeit, Thomas Hartmann, Dirk Hermann, Doris Haake, Jasmin Mensfeld, Julia Mensfeld, John Mensfeld, Marlies Raschke, Detlef Raschke, Siegmar Seeboldt and the inhabitants of Beiersdorf
Production manager: Antonella Kurzen
Camera: Stefan Runge
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Hanna Weissgerber
Camera assistant: Henning Stirner
Sript and Continuity: Ricarda Brand
Driver / Best Boy: Udo Kiene
Music: Rhythm King And Her Friends

Produced by Kunsthaus Zürich and Fine Arts Unternehmen Video + Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Swiss / Germany

Alles wird wieder gut (from the installation Farewell Letter to The Swiss Workers), 2006

Digital video, 19’56 min, 16/9 Anamorph.
German speaking with English subtitles

In a village of former East Germany, young adults meet with the intention of finding an alternative to isolation and social precariousness while their parents demonstrate in front of the disused factory, as every day of the year for the last 15 years. The young persons decide  to organize a party; it is meant to help them to confront themselves on their divergent opinions as for the model of society to which they aspire. As antidote to exclusion, they choose the debate of ideas. The arrival of a foreign journalist reporting on the region sets off contrasting attitudes: for the oldest, it represents an answer to the wait of a recognition, whereas the younger ones see in it the necessity of freeing themselves from media standardization in order to construct networks of resistance on a local level.

Lenin spent 1914–17 living in exile in Zurich. Before he returned to Russia to play his part in the Revolution, he wrote a letter to the Swiss workers. In it he exhorted them to resist the ‘imperialist war’ and lauded the “proletarian revolution that is beginning in Europe“. Lenin’s social vision has not stood the test of time; nevertheless some of his arguments have taken on a new relevance in the context of recent political events on the world stage. This is where the artists Moser/Schwinger come into the picture.
 
WHAT KIND OF A SOCIETY DO WE REALLY WANT? Responding to Vladimir Lenin’s letter, Moser/Schwinger have realised a video work for the Kunsthaus Zürich, entitled ‘Alles wird wieder gut’ [‘It’ll all turn out alright’], in which they re-address the question of social utopias. What kind of a society would we wish for ourselves? And what social forms are we capable of sustaining? The artists spent a week, not far from Berlin, making a twenty-minute video. The plot revolves around a village community in the East of the reunited Germany, sixteen years after the Berlin Wall came down. Since 1989 unemployed workers have been demonstrating daily outside the gates of their old factory, protesting at the loss of their long-gone jobs. While a group of students in the adjacent village pub discuss their own future and that of their fellow citizens, children are putting on a show in the village church. A boy, playing the part of the young Lenin, cites passages from his farewell letter to the Swiss workers.

REPRESENTING THE PRESENT IN FILMS AND VIDEOS. As in their work ‘Capitulation Project’ – an attempt to understand, in the year 2003, the My Lai massacre perpetrated during the Vietnam War – Moser/Schwinger have again taken a historical process or event as their starting point and examine the representation of victims and perpetrators. They leave viewers with the knowledge that any search for historical truth is doomed to failure. In the work specially made for the Kunsthaus Zürich, they deliberately make a play on the ambiguity of the term ‘farewell letter’, which might be bidding farewell in the usual sense, but could equally well be a letter of dismissal – all too familiar in these times of business closures and reorganisation. As in the work ‘Unexpected Rules’ (2004), with which Moser/Schwinger represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial, once again they are engaging with the issues surrounding representation and communication in the media today. Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger were both employed in the theatre at an earlier stage in their careers, and their art is a mixture of drama, video and installation. In their works they set up a complex interplay of apparent authenticity and subtle deception, which captivates the viewer with its formal precision and emotional intensity.

STOCK EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE AND THE ZURICH CONCRETISTS. In their Kunsthaus exhibition, Moser/Schwinger focus not only on the question of social utopias but also on artistic-aesthetic utopias. In a seventeen-metre wall painting, they deliberately invoke memories of the Zurich Concretists; at the same time they take the notion of Concrete Art ad absurdum. The forms used here do not arise from strict parameters devised by the artists – experimental forms and colours with no connection to the real world – for they derive from economic factors, specifically the performance graphs of Swiss Market Index at the Zürcher Börse Swiss Exchange in 2005.

 Review by Mirjam Varadinis

Cast: Christoph Beuing, Martin Georg Endress, Martin Hohner, Janina Rudenska, Ninoschka Schlothauer, Sebastian Straub, Michael Schumacher, Roger Tebb  and Ivaldo Bessière, Steffen Gloge, Andreas Gutzeit, Thomas Hartmann, Dirk Hermann, Doris Haake, Jasmin Mensfeld, Julia Mensfeld, John Mensfeld, Marlies Raschke, Detlef Raschke, Siegmar Seeboldt and the inhabitants of Beiersdorf
Production manager: Antonella Kurzen
Camera: Stefan Runge
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Hanna Weissgerber
Camera assistant: Henning Stirner
Sript and Continuity: Ricarda Brand
Driver / Best Boy: Udo Kiene
Music: Rhythm King And Her Friends

Produced by Kunsthaus Zürich and Fine Arts Unternehmen Video + Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Swiss / Germany

Donnerstag, 2006

Digital video, colour 16/9, 12’53 min

The working day of a women in the dairy industry in the former GDR. Working with the same actors in two totally distince contexts (see: “Time flies“), our project is to suggest two different versions of the world. The only fictional élément in this documentary film is the actor’s performance who–after some préparation–appropriâtes the job of the worker on her side.  

Cast: Fernanda Farah
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Philippe Schwinger

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Germany



 

Donnerstag, 2006

Digital video, colour 16/9, 12’53 min

The working day of a women in the dairy industry in the former GDR. Working with the same actors in two totally distince contexts (see: “Time flies“), our project is to suggest two different versions of the world. The only fictional élément in this documentary film is the actor’s performance who–after some préparation–appropriâtes the job of the worker on her side.  

Cast: Fernanda Farah
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Philippe Schwinger

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Germany



 

Donnerstag, 2006

Digital video, colour 16/9, 12’53 min

The working day of a women in the dairy industry in the former GDR. Working with the same actors in two totally distince contexts (see: “Time flies“), our project is to suggest two different versions of the world. The only fictional élément in this documentary film is the actor’s performance who–after some préparation–appropriâtes the job of the worker on her side.  

Cast: Fernanda Farah
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Philippe Schwinger

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Germany



 

Schwejk Perspektiven, 2006

Digital video, colour, 12’34 min
German speaking with French subtitles

Als Ausgangsbasis für die Filmproduktion „Swejk Perspektiven“ dienen die tragik-komischen „Abenteuer des Braven Soldaten Schwejk“, geschrieben von Jaroslav Hašek in Prag 1921−23. Die Figur des Schwejk, ein Tscheche, der im Ersten Weltkrieg an die österreichisch-ungarische Armee ausgeliehen wird, dient als Folie für die Schaffung eines „imaginären Schweijk heute“.

Welche Aktionen oder Reaktionen entstehen, wenn sich die Angst vor sozialer Unsicherheit immer weiter ausbreitet?  Wie soll man in der Gegenwart leben, wenn die Zukunft so bedrohliche Züge annimmt? Sind in einem diktatorischen Regime poetische Gesten möglich? Ausgehend von diesen Fragen werden laufend Situationen erfunden, mit denen sich der neue Schwejk auseinandersetzen muss.

Das Projekt wurde gemeinsam mit SchauspielstudentInnen der Grazer Universität für darstellende Kunst aus Dokumenten, geschriebenen Dialogen und performativen Sequenzen entwickelt. In einer Art Laboratoriumssituation wurde das Kunsthaus Graz erst zum Drehort und dann zum Kino einer neuen Schweijk-Verfilmung.

Produced by Kunsthaus Graz
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Austria / Germany

Schwejk Perspektiven, 2006

Digital video, colour, 12’34 min
German speaking with French subtitles

Als Ausgangsbasis für die Filmproduktion „Swejk Perspektiven“ dienen die tragik-komischen „Abenteuer des Braven Soldaten Schwejk“, geschrieben von Jaroslav Hašek in Prag 1921−23. Die Figur des Schwejk, ein Tscheche, der im Ersten Weltkrieg an die österreichisch-ungarische Armee ausgeliehen wird, dient als Folie für die Schaffung eines „imaginären Schweijk heute“.

Welche Aktionen oder Reaktionen entstehen, wenn sich die Angst vor sozialer Unsicherheit immer weiter ausbreitet?  Wie soll man in der Gegenwart leben, wenn die Zukunft so bedrohliche Züge annimmt? Sind in einem diktatorischen Regime poetische Gesten möglich? Ausgehend von diesen Fragen werden laufend Situationen erfunden, mit denen sich der neue Schwejk auseinandersetzen muss.

Das Projekt wurde gemeinsam mit SchauspielstudentInnen der Grazer Universität für darstellende Kunst aus Dokumenten, geschriebenen Dialogen und performativen Sequenzen entwickelt. In einer Art Laboratoriumssituation wurde das Kunsthaus Graz erst zum Drehort und dann zum Kino einer neuen Schweijk-Verfilmung.

Produced by Kunsthaus Graz
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Austria / Germany

Schwejk Perspektiven, 2006

Digital video, colour, 12’34 min
German speaking with French subtitles

Als Ausgangsbasis für die Filmproduktion „Swejk Perspektiven“ dienen die tragik-komischen „Abenteuer des Braven Soldaten Schwejk“, geschrieben von Jaroslav Hašek in Prag 1921−23. Die Figur des Schwejk, ein Tscheche, der im Ersten Weltkrieg an die österreichisch-ungarische Armee ausgeliehen wird, dient als Folie für die Schaffung eines „imaginären Schweijk heute“.

Welche Aktionen oder Reaktionen entstehen, wenn sich die Angst vor sozialer Unsicherheit immer weiter ausbreitet?  Wie soll man in der Gegenwart leben, wenn die Zukunft so bedrohliche Züge annimmt? Sind in einem diktatorischen Regime poetische Gesten möglich? Ausgehend von diesen Fragen werden laufend Situationen erfunden, mit denen sich der neue Schwejk auseinandersetzen muss.

Das Projekt wurde gemeinsam mit SchauspielstudentInnen der Grazer Universität für darstellende Kunst aus Dokumenten, geschriebenen Dialogen und performativen Sequenzen entwickelt. In einer Art Laboratoriumssituation wurde das Kunsthaus Graz erst zum Drehort und dann zum Kino einer neuen Schweijk-Verfilmung.

Produced by Kunsthaus Graz
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Austria / Germany

Schwejk Perspektiven, 2006

Digital video, colour, 12’34 min
German speaking with French subtitles

Als Ausgangsbasis für die Filmproduktion „Swejk Perspektiven“ dienen die tragik-komischen „Abenteuer des Braven Soldaten Schwejk“, geschrieben von Jaroslav Hašek in Prag 1921−23. Die Figur des Schwejk, ein Tscheche, der im Ersten Weltkrieg an die österreichisch-ungarische Armee ausgeliehen wird, dient als Folie für die Schaffung eines „imaginären Schweijk heute“.

Welche Aktionen oder Reaktionen entstehen, wenn sich die Angst vor sozialer Unsicherheit immer weiter ausbreitet?  Wie soll man in der Gegenwart leben, wenn die Zukunft so bedrohliche Züge annimmt? Sind in einem diktatorischen Regime poetische Gesten möglich? Ausgehend von diesen Fragen werden laufend Situationen erfunden, mit denen sich der neue Schwejk auseinandersetzen muss.

Das Projekt wurde gemeinsam mit SchauspielstudentInnen der Grazer Universität für darstellende Kunst aus Dokumenten, geschriebenen Dialogen und performativen Sequenzen entwickelt. In einer Art Laboratoriumssituation wurde das Kunsthaus Graz erst zum Drehort und dann zum Kino einer neuen Schweijk-Verfilmung.

Produced by Kunsthaus Graz
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Austria / Germany

Time Flies, 2006

Digital video, 4‘26 min
English speaking with French subtitles

In a vacant theater, a young woman speaks directly to the camera. She mentions her relation with the media after an affair she has had with the president. Her name is Amanda, and she is the fictional double of Monica Lewinsky.  

Proceeding our reflection on the image of the United States of America, we have taken up a character from our “Unexpected Rules“ project (2004) and have imagined a new chapter in her development. Departing from given facts, we created a filmic scène focussing on ambivalences.

Amanda’s monologue:
Everybody knows that I did it.
Everybody does it, without saying anything.
I would have liked to do it in another way, not to be in this position.
At least if I had beaten him up to a pulp, if I had had the whip hand over him.
I would have known why I had to apologize.

All I want now is to go back to my country.
I want to become a singer there. (in portuguese)
I want to dance all night, I want to drink till I drop dead. (in english)
I want people to love me for the fact that I’m able to do things.
But I can’t think of it at the moment.

I’m here for the reason which made me famous.
Do I have to say it again ?
I was never a bad person. I made some mistakes, but I just needed to mature.
Do you want to hear it again ?
There was this charismatic, powerful man who was standing there showing interest in me. I thought, Ok… whatever. You know, I‘m young, it‘s the president, he‘s cute. It‘s kinda cool. Irresponsible, but cool.

Time flies. Commenting on my birthday, a chronicler said, Amanda is thirty today. It seemed like just yesterday she was crawling around on the floor in the Oval Office. It made people laugh.
I get one other male joke : Dont’ feel sorry about Amanda, she‘ll be back on her knees in no time.
Time flies. I hosted a TV show, I became obese, began a career as designer. Then I met God, then I lost weight. An instructor told me : There are ten curtains dimming the light of intelligence burning inside of us. Everything that happens in our lives, happens for a reason.

As America’s premier blowjob queen of the nineties, I was such a brave girl. I shared details that I wouldn’t have shared with anybody. Because I thought I had to. Like now, when the reporters ask me : Is your goal to get married and have children ? Does the man of your dreams have to be competitive, due to the fact that you and the president… ? Could it be just a schoolteacher or a carpenter? Taking a traditional job would just never work for you, right ? Do you see yourself as a housewife someday ?

For years I’m being saving men’s faces. I should leave the stage now, right ? I always anticipate what people want from me. And I like to give them what they expect. But then, something goes wrong every time.

Cast: Fernanda Farah
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Light: Philippe Schwinger

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Germany

Time Flies, 2006

Digital video, 4‘26 min
English speaking with French subtitles

In a vacant theater, a young woman speaks directly to the camera. She mentions her relation with the media after an affair she has had with the president. Her name is Amanda, and she is the fictional double of Monica Lewinsky.  

Proceeding our reflection on the image of the United States of America, we have taken up a character from our “Unexpected Rules“ project (2004) and have imagined a new chapter in her development. Departing from given facts, we created a filmic scène focussing on ambivalences.

Amanda’s monologue:
Everybody knows that I did it.
Everybody does it, without saying anything.
I would have liked to do it in another way, not to be in this position.
At least if I had beaten him up to a pulp, if I had had the whip hand over him.
I would have known why I had to apologize.

All I want now is to go back to my country.
I want to become a singer there. (in portuguese)
I want to dance all night, I want to drink till I drop dead. (in english)
I want people to love me for the fact that I’m able to do things.
But I can’t think of it at the moment.

I’m here for the reason which made me famous.
Do I have to say it again ?
I was never a bad person. I made some mistakes, but I just needed to mature.
Do you want to hear it again ?
There was this charismatic, powerful man who was standing there showing interest in me. I thought, Ok… whatever. You know, I‘m young, it‘s the president, he‘s cute. It‘s kinda cool. Irresponsible, but cool.

Time flies. Commenting on my birthday, a chronicler said, Amanda is thirty today. It seemed like just yesterday she was crawling around on the floor in the Oval Office. It made people laugh.
I get one other male joke : Dont’ feel sorry about Amanda, she‘ll be back on her knees in no time.
Time flies. I hosted a TV show, I became obese, began a career as designer. Then I met God, then I lost weight. An instructor told me : There are ten curtains dimming the light of intelligence burning inside of us. Everything that happens in our lives, happens for a reason.

As America’s premier blowjob queen of the nineties, I was such a brave girl. I shared details that I wouldn’t have shared with anybody. Because I thought I had to. Like now, when the reporters ask me : Is your goal to get married and have children ? Does the man of your dreams have to be competitive, due to the fact that you and the president… ? Could it be just a schoolteacher or a carpenter? Taking a traditional job would just never work for you, right ? Do you see yourself as a housewife someday ?

For years I’m being saving men’s faces. I should leave the stage now, right ? I always anticipate what people want from me. And I like to give them what they expect. But then, something goes wrong every time.

Cast: Fernanda Farah
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Light: Philippe Schwinger

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006 Germany

Revival Paradise, 2005

Beta sp, 16/9 colour, 55 min
Polish speaking with English subtitles

A young woman travels to Warsaw from a poor region in eastern Poland to find a job. Her cousin takes her in, letting her stay in his tiny apartment. He introduces her to a friend of his with whom he devises various schemes that allow them to survive. The woman first attempts to become accepted within this closed circle, and later leaves for a different city in search of work. After a while, she is rejoined by her two friends, and the three of them travel to the seaside.

Based on the framework of Jim Jarmusch‘s „Stranger than Paradise“, we imported this story of exile to Poland twenty years later. We followed the original film‘s scheme in order to better expose the historical shift which has taken place. In the 1984 film, a Hungarian woman discovered the American way of life as she stayed with her cousin in New York; this time, a young woman from a village in Eastern Poland comes to Warsaw in search of work and resides with her cousin. The schism between two divergent cultural models now plays itself out within one society. The scenes – autonomous, but chronological sequence shots – are set in today‘s Poland, echoing the original settings in New York, Cleveland and Florida: a modest apartment in the Foksal district, a few streets in the suburb, the countryside flashing by during a car trip, and the Baltic Sea. Societal mutations are revealed to us in snatches, as we stay close to the three protagonists, who live in a closed circle even though they pretend to be part of the surrounding reality. In Jarmusch‘s film, the plot was already an alibi to reflect upon a model of life as a threesome. Importing this model into the present context of a former Soviet bloc country, even asking our actors to take on postures similar to those of the anti-heroes of „Stranger…“: this was our gamble, for we wished to sow confusion as to the need for defining oneself through an identity. We aimed at an improbable road movie in which the escapade to the sea is by no means a fruitful dream and in which the intimacy shared by three, portrayed as a non-prescriptive model, exposes each character‘s reluctance to break away from pre-established roles. With „Revival…“, we pursue our critique of the myth of authenticity, with just the slightest air of tenderness rising above reference models.

Cast: Robert Wrzosek (Kuba), Joanna Laskowska (Monika), Kacper Kuszewski (Kamil), Maciej Zielinski (Jacek), Adam Falkiewicz (The Worker), Walentyna Sienkiewicz (Aunt Ela)
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Justyna Musialska, Leszek Freund
Music: Adam Falkiewicz
Guitars, Live electronics: Adam Walicki
Gaffer: Philippe Schwinger
First Production Assistant: Anja Rosinska
Second Production Assistants: Ulrike Mantel, Arletta Wojtala
Set Assistant: Ewa Pawlak
Translators: Ania Stepien, Arletta Wojtala

Produced by a-i-r laboratory, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, and Fine Arts Unternehmen Film
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2005 Poland / Germany

Revival Paradise, 2005

Beta sp, 16/9 colour, 55 min
Polish speaking with English subtitles

A young woman travels to Warsaw from a poor region in eastern Poland to find a job. Her cousin takes her in, letting her stay in his tiny apartment. He introduces her to a friend of his with whom he devises various schemes that allow them to survive. The woman first attempts to become accepted within this closed circle, and later leaves for a different city in search of work. After a while, she is rejoined by her two friends, and the three of them travel to the seaside.

Based on the framework of Jim Jarmusch‘s „Stranger than Paradise“, we imported this story of exile to Poland twenty years later. We followed the original film‘s scheme in order to better expose the historical shift which has taken place. In the 1984 film, a Hungarian woman discovered the American way of life as she stayed with her cousin in New York; this time, a young woman from a village in Eastern Poland comes to Warsaw in search of work and resides with her cousin. The schism between two divergent cultural models now plays itself out within one society. The scenes – autonomous, but chronological sequence shots – are set in today‘s Poland, echoing the original settings in New York, Cleveland and Florida: a modest apartment in the Foksal district, a few streets in the suburb, the countryside flashing by during a car trip, and the Baltic Sea. Societal mutations are revealed to us in snatches, as we stay close to the three protagonists, who live in a closed circle even though they pretend to be part of the surrounding reality. In Jarmusch‘s film, the plot was already an alibi to reflect upon a model of life as a threesome. Importing this model into the present context of a former Soviet bloc country, even asking our actors to take on postures similar to those of the anti-heroes of „Stranger…“: this was our gamble, for we wished to sow confusion as to the need for defining oneself through an identity. We aimed at an improbable road movie in which the escapade to the sea is by no means a fruitful dream and in which the intimacy shared by three, portrayed as a non-prescriptive model, exposes each character‘s reluctance to break away from pre-established roles. With „Revival…“, we pursue our critique of the myth of authenticity, with just the slightest air of tenderness rising above reference models.

Cast: Robert Wrzosek (Kuba), Joanna Laskowska (Monika), Kacper Kuszewski (Kamil), Maciej Zielinski (Jacek), Adam Falkiewicz (The Worker), Walentyna Sienkiewicz (Aunt Ela)
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Justyna Musialska, Leszek Freund
Music: Adam Falkiewicz
Guitars, Live electronics: Adam Walicki
Gaffer: Philippe Schwinger
First Production Assistant: Anja Rosinska
Second Production Assistants: Ulrike Mantel, Arletta Wojtala
Set Assistant: Ewa Pawlak
Translators: Ania Stepien, Arletta Wojtala

Produced by a-i-r laboratory, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, and Fine Arts Unternehmen Film
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2005 Poland / Germany

Revival Paradise, 2005

Beta sp, 16/9 colour, 55 min
Polish speaking with English subtitles

A young woman travels to Warsaw from a poor region in eastern Poland to find a job. Her cousin takes her in, letting her stay in his tiny apartment. He introduces her to a friend of his with whom he devises various schemes that allow them to survive. The woman first attempts to become accepted within this closed circle, and later leaves for a different city in search of work. After a while, she is rejoined by her two friends, and the three of them travel to the seaside.

Based on the framework of Jim Jarmusch‘s „Stranger than Paradise“, we imported this story of exile to Poland twenty years later. We followed the original film‘s scheme in order to better expose the historical shift which has taken place. In the 1984 film, a Hungarian woman discovered the American way of life as she stayed with her cousin in New York; this time, a young woman from a village in Eastern Poland comes to Warsaw in search of work and resides with her cousin. The schism between two divergent cultural models now plays itself out within one society. The scenes – autonomous, but chronological sequence shots – are set in today‘s Poland, echoing the original settings in New York, Cleveland and Florida: a modest apartment in the Foksal district, a few streets in the suburb, the countryside flashing by during a car trip, and the Baltic Sea. Societal mutations are revealed to us in snatches, as we stay close to the three protagonists, who live in a closed circle even though they pretend to be part of the surrounding reality. In Jarmusch‘s film, the plot was already an alibi to reflect upon a model of life as a threesome. Importing this model into the present context of a former Soviet bloc country, even asking our actors to take on postures similar to those of the anti-heroes of „Stranger…“: this was our gamble, for we wished to sow confusion as to the need for defining oneself through an identity. We aimed at an improbable road movie in which the escapade to the sea is by no means a fruitful dream and in which the intimacy shared by three, portrayed as a non-prescriptive model, exposes each character‘s reluctance to break away from pre-established roles. With „Revival…“, we pursue our critique of the myth of authenticity, with just the slightest air of tenderness rising above reference models.

Cast: Robert Wrzosek (Kuba), Joanna Laskowska (Monika), Kacper Kuszewski (Kamil), Maciej Zielinski (Jacek), Adam Falkiewicz (The Worker), Walentyna Sienkiewicz (Aunt Ela)
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Justyna Musialska, Leszek Freund
Music: Adam Falkiewicz
Guitars, Live electronics: Adam Walicki
Gaffer: Philippe Schwinger
First Production Assistant: Anja Rosinska
Second Production Assistants: Ulrike Mantel, Arletta Wojtala
Set Assistant: Ewa Pawlak
Translators: Ania Stepien, Arletta Wojtala

Produced by a-i-r laboratory, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, and Fine Arts Unternehmen Film
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2005 Poland / Germany

 Unexpecte Rules, 2004

Set and video projection. Film 35 mm color transferred to HD video, 16’06 min
Lightbox; wood, metal, 1.300 coloured light bulbs, light dimmer, projection screen
335 x 610 x 420 cm
English speaking

The script is based on the “Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, which arose from the nexus between power, sex, and globalized media and shows how multifaceted levels of interest, along with public images, ultimately render the “true” interpretation of an event impossible. Moser & Schwinger’s version of the affair does not follow a linear storyline that is shaped by causality and rational behavior. Rather, their cinematographic and scenic adaptation of the actors’ contradictory emotions, interests, and strategies creates a complex plot that forces the viewer to accept paradoxes as a part of reality. These different layers are integrated into a popular form of epresentation - a cross between a TV show and puppet theater.

Artists’ statement:
We conceived the lightbox as a place where politics stages its own performance. The fact that all protagonists are constantly on stage makes each character even more lucid. By distorting the facts in a plausible manner, we are attempting to set the characters’ spoken lines within contexts that, in the real world, exclude one another.

The film was first shown at the Biennale de São Paulo 2004 as part of a video installation in which visitors enter the reconstructed film set (a wooden lightbox lined with 1,300 colored bulbs), stand very close to the projection screen, and become first-hand witnesses of the negotiations within the intimate setting of the presidential family.

Cast: Roger Tebb (President Roy), Ilya Parenteau (First Lady Heather), Fernanda Farah (Intern Amanda Cook), Peter Cotton (Prosecutor Jerry), Katie Mullins (Secretary (Melinda), Hans Haasis (Diplomat), Leslie Alina Schäfer (Daughter Sunny)
Production manager: Ulrike Mantel
Camera: Anne Misselwitz
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Marc Witte
1. Camera assistant: Christoph Lemmen
2. Camera assistant Marc Lontzek
Script continuity: Barbara Gebler
Gaffer: Günter Berghaus
2. Gaffers: Johannes Neumann, Christof Stemmberger
Set construction: Sebastian Kulisch
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit, Carola Ruckdeschel
Make-up: Marion Greiter
Grip: Bernhard Kühn
Catering: Ingo Biermann
Volunteers: Lea Gryze, Paula Redlefsen 
Post-production provided by: Schwarz Film AG, Berlin / Koppfilm GmbH, Berlin

Produced by: Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Berne, and Academy for Film and Television Konrad Wolf, Postdam-Babelsberg 
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

 Unexpecte Rules, 2004

Set and video projection. Film 35 mm color transferred to HD video, 16’06 min
Lightbox; wood, metal, 1.300 coloured light bulbs, light dimmer, projection screen
335 x 610 x 420 cm
English speaking

The script is based on the “Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, which arose from the nexus between power, sex, and globalized media and shows how multifaceted levels of interest, along with public images, ultimately render the “true” interpretation of an event impossible. Moser & Schwinger’s version of the affair does not follow a linear storyline that is shaped by causality and rational behavior. Rather, their cinematographic and scenic adaptation of the actors’ contradictory emotions, interests, and strategies creates a complex plot that forces the viewer to accept paradoxes as a part of reality. These different layers are integrated into a popular form of epresentation - a cross between a TV show and puppet theater.

Artists’ statement:
We conceived the lightbox as a place where politics stages its own performance. The fact that all protagonists are constantly on stage makes each character even more lucid. By distorting the facts in a plausible manner, we are attempting to set the characters’ spoken lines within contexts that, in the real world, exclude one another.

The film was first shown at the Biennale de São Paulo 2004 as part of a video installation in which visitors enter the reconstructed film set (a wooden lightbox lined with 1,300 colored bulbs), stand very close to the projection screen, and become first-hand witnesses of the negotiations within the intimate setting of the presidential family.

Cast: Roger Tebb (President Roy), Ilya Parenteau (First Lady Heather), Fernanda Farah (Intern Amanda Cook), Peter Cotton (Prosecutor Jerry), Katie Mullins (Secretary (Melinda), Hans Haasis (Diplomat), Leslie Alina Schäfer (Daughter Sunny)
Production manager: Ulrike Mantel
Camera: Anne Misselwitz
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Marc Witte
1. Camera assistant: Christoph Lemmen
2. Camera assistant Marc Lontzek
Script continuity: Barbara Gebler
Gaffer: Günter Berghaus
2. Gaffers: Johannes Neumann, Christof Stemmberger
Set construction: Sebastian Kulisch
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit, Carola Ruckdeschel
Make-up: Marion Greiter
Grip: Bernhard Kühn
Catering: Ingo Biermann
Volunteers: Lea Gryze, Paula Redlefsen 
Post-production provided by: Schwarz Film AG, Berlin / Koppfilm GmbH, Berlin

Produced by: Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Berne, and Academy for Film and Television Konrad Wolf, Postdam-Babelsberg 
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

 Unexpecte Rules, 2004

Set and video projection. Film 35 mm color transferred to HD video, 16’06 min
Lightbox; wood, metal, 1.300 coloured light bulbs, light dimmer, projection screen
335 x 610 x 420 cm
English speaking

The script is based on the “Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, which arose from the nexus between power, sex, and globalized media and shows how multifaceted levels of interest, along with public images, ultimately render the “true” interpretation of an event impossible. Moser & Schwinger’s version of the affair does not follow a linear storyline that is shaped by causality and rational behavior. Rather, their cinematographic and scenic adaptation of the actors’ contradictory emotions, interests, and strategies creates a complex plot that forces the viewer to accept paradoxes as a part of reality. These different layers are integrated into a popular form of epresentation - a cross between a TV show and puppet theater.

Artists’ statement:
We conceived the lightbox as a place where politics stages its own performance. The fact that all protagonists are constantly on stage makes each character even more lucid. By distorting the facts in a plausible manner, we are attempting to set the characters’ spoken lines within contexts that, in the real world, exclude one another.

The film was first shown at the Biennale de São Paulo 2004 as part of a video installation in which visitors enter the reconstructed film set (a wooden lightbox lined with 1,300 colored bulbs), stand very close to the projection screen, and become first-hand witnesses of the negotiations within the intimate setting of the presidential family.

Cast: Roger Tebb (President Roy), Ilya Parenteau (First Lady Heather), Fernanda Farah (Intern Amanda Cook), Peter Cotton (Prosecutor Jerry), Katie Mullins (Secretary (Melinda), Hans Haasis (Diplomat), Leslie Alina Schäfer (Daughter Sunny)
Production manager: Ulrike Mantel
Camera: Anne Misselwitz
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Marc Witte
1. Camera assistant: Christoph Lemmen
2. Camera assistant Marc Lontzek
Script continuity: Barbara Gebler
Gaffer: Günter Berghaus
2. Gaffers: Johannes Neumann, Christof Stemmberger
Set construction: Sebastian Kulisch
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit, Carola Ruckdeschel
Make-up: Marion Greiter
Grip: Bernhard Kühn
Catering: Ingo Biermann
Volunteers: Lea Gryze, Paula Redlefsen 
Post-production provided by: Schwarz Film AG, Berlin / Koppfilm GmbH, Berlin

Produced by: Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Berne, and Academy for Film and Television Konrad Wolf, Postdam-Babelsberg 
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

 Unexpecte Rules, 2004

Set and video projection. Film 35 mm color transferred to HD video, 16’06 min
Lightbox; wood, metal, 1.300 coloured light bulbs, light dimmer, projection screen
335 x 610 x 420 cm
English speaking

The script is based on the “Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, which arose from the nexus between power, sex, and globalized media and shows how multifaceted levels of interest, along with public images, ultimately render the “true” interpretation of an event impossible. Moser & Schwinger’s version of the affair does not follow a linear storyline that is shaped by causality and rational behavior. Rather, their cinematographic and scenic adaptation of the actors’ contradictory emotions, interests, and strategies creates a complex plot that forces the viewer to accept paradoxes as a part of reality. These different layers are integrated into a popular form of epresentation - a cross between a TV show and puppet theater.

Artists’ statement:
We conceived the lightbox as a place where politics stages its own performance. The fact that all protagonists are constantly on stage makes each character even more lucid. By distorting the facts in a plausible manner, we are attempting to set the characters’ spoken lines within contexts that, in the real world, exclude one another.

The film was first shown at the Biennale de São Paulo 2004 as part of a video installation in which visitors enter the reconstructed film set (a wooden lightbox lined with 1,300 colored bulbs), stand very close to the projection screen, and become first-hand witnesses of the negotiations within the intimate setting of the presidential family.

Cast: Roger Tebb (President Roy), Ilya Parenteau (First Lady Heather), Fernanda Farah (Intern Amanda Cook), Peter Cotton (Prosecutor Jerry), Katie Mullins (Secretary (Melinda), Hans Haasis (Diplomat), Leslie Alina Schäfer (Daughter Sunny)
Production manager: Ulrike Mantel
Camera: Anne Misselwitz
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Marc Witte
1. Camera assistant: Christoph Lemmen
2. Camera assistant Marc Lontzek
Script continuity: Barbara Gebler
Gaffer: Günter Berghaus
2. Gaffers: Johannes Neumann, Christof Stemmberger
Set construction: Sebastian Kulisch
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit, Carola Ruckdeschel
Make-up: Marion Greiter
Grip: Bernhard Kühn
Catering: Ingo Biermann
Volunteers: Lea Gryze, Paula Redlefsen 
Post-production provided by: Schwarz Film AG, Berlin / Koppfilm GmbH, Berlin

Produced by: Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Berne, and Academy for Film and Television Konrad Wolf, Postdam-Babelsberg 
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

 Unexpecte Rules, 2004

Set and video projection. Film 35 mm color transferred to HD video, 16’06 min
Lightbox; wood, metal, 1.300 coloured light bulbs, light dimmer, projection screen
335 x 610 x 420 cm
English speaking

The script is based on the “Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, which arose from the nexus between power, sex, and globalized media and shows how multifaceted levels of interest, along with public images, ultimately render the “true” interpretation of an event impossible. Moser & Schwinger’s version of the affair does not follow a linear storyline that is shaped by causality and rational behavior. Rather, their cinematographic and scenic adaptation of the actors’ contradictory emotions, interests, and strategies creates a complex plot that forces the viewer to accept paradoxes as a part of reality. These different layers are integrated into a popular form of epresentation - a cross between a TV show and puppet theater.

Artists’ statement:
We conceived the lightbox as a place where politics stages its own performance. The fact that all protagonists are constantly on stage makes each character even more lucid. By distorting the facts in a plausible manner, we are attempting to set the characters’ spoken lines within contexts that, in the real world, exclude one another.

The film was first shown at the Biennale de São Paulo 2004 as part of a video installation in which visitors enter the reconstructed film set (a wooden lightbox lined with 1,300 colored bulbs), stand very close to the projection screen, and become first-hand witnesses of the negotiations within the intimate setting of the presidential family.

Cast: Roger Tebb (President Roy), Ilya Parenteau (First Lady Heather), Fernanda Farah (Intern Amanda Cook), Peter Cotton (Prosecutor Jerry), Katie Mullins (Secretary (Melinda), Hans Haasis (Diplomat), Leslie Alina Schäfer (Daughter Sunny)
Production manager: Ulrike Mantel
Camera: Anne Misselwitz
Sound: Johanna Herr
Sound assistant: Marc Witte
1. Camera assistant: Christoph Lemmen
2. Camera assistant Marc Lontzek
Script continuity: Barbara Gebler
Gaffer: Günter Berghaus
2. Gaffers: Johannes Neumann, Christof Stemmberger
Set construction: Sebastian Kulisch
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit, Carola Ruckdeschel
Make-up: Marion Greiter
Grip: Bernhard Kühn
Catering: Ingo Biermann
Volunteers: Lea Gryze, Paula Redlefsen 
Post-production provided by: Schwarz Film AG, Berlin / Koppfilm GmbH, Berlin

Produced by: Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Berne, and Academy for Film and Television Konrad Wolf, Postdam-Babelsberg 
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

Acting Facts, 2003

One channel video, Digital video, 9’40 min
English

Acting Facts tells a story of a massacre that resulted in the deaths of several hundred unarmed civilians, murdered by American soldiers on the morning of 16 March 1968 in the Vietnamese village of My Lai. When the news of this bloodbath finally came out late in 1969, it caused widespread incredulity and shock. This was the first report of a war crime that had been committed by American soldiers, and even those who were violently opposed to the war in Vietnam would have never thought such an atrocity possible. In 1970, the events at My Lai were officially investigated by the Peers Panel and the findings were widely publicised and discussed. At home, the support for military action in Vietnam began to waver.

The text of Acting Facts is composed of different testimonies presented before the Peers Panel; it is an account of what happened in My Lai drawn from the public recollections of eye-witnesses and perpetrators. These memories are mediated through an actor who at times recites the text, but who also falls into acting it out, taking on the different personae – the bullying officer, or the grenadier who straightens up when addressing his superior. (…)

For Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger, theatre is not about enacting fantasies, but about the investigation of information transfer. They use theatrical form and its mediation in film as an approach to furthering knowledge about communication and about cognition. Their films concentrate on the performative aspects of introspection (…).

Moser / Schwinger work with non-narrative narratives; their films do not present a full story, they do not elaborate a linear development of one theme, but are rather elliptical and at times also decontextualised. Acting Facts therefore cannot only be seen as a film about Vietnam or about My Lai, as these places are never even mentioned in the spoken text, but as a pathology of armed conflict, as a study in dehumanisation and the methods of coming to terms with it.

Review by Axel Lapp

Performer: Roger Tebb
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Michael Grub, Tobias Schultz

Produced by Fine Arts Unternemen Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

Acting Facts, 2003

One channel video, Digital video, 9’40 min
English

Acting Facts tells a story of a massacre that resulted in the deaths of several hundred unarmed civilians, murdered by American soldiers on the morning of 16 March 1968 in the Vietnamese village of My Lai. When the news of this bloodbath finally came out late in 1969, it caused widespread incredulity and shock. This was the first report of a war crime that had been committed by American soldiers, and even those who were violently opposed to the war in Vietnam would have never thought such an atrocity possible. In 1970, the events at My Lai were officially investigated by the Peers Panel and the findings were widely publicised and discussed. At home, the support for military action in Vietnam began to waver.

The text of Acting Facts is composed of different testimonies presented before the Peers Panel; it is an account of what happened in My Lai drawn from the public recollections of eye-witnesses and perpetrators. These memories are mediated through an actor who at times recites the text, but who also falls into acting it out, taking on the different personae – the bullying officer, or the grenadier who straightens up when addressing his superior. (…)

For Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger, theatre is not about enacting fantasies, but about the investigation of information transfer. They use theatrical form and its mediation in film as an approach to furthering knowledge about communication and about cognition. Their films concentrate on the performative aspects of introspection (…).

Moser / Schwinger work with non-narrative narratives; their films do not present a full story, they do not elaborate a linear development of one theme, but are rather elliptical and at times also decontextualised. Acting Facts therefore cannot only be seen as a film about Vietnam or about My Lai, as these places are never even mentioned in the spoken text, but as a pathology of armed conflict, as a study in dehumanisation and the methods of coming to terms with it.

Review by Axel Lapp

Performer: Roger Tebb
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Michael Grub, Tobias Schultz

Produced by Fine Arts Unternemen Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

Acting Facts, 2003

One channel video, Digital video, 9’40 min
English

Acting Facts tells a story of a massacre that resulted in the deaths of several hundred unarmed civilians, murdered by American soldiers on the morning of 16 March 1968 in the Vietnamese village of My Lai. When the news of this bloodbath finally came out late in 1969, it caused widespread incredulity and shock. This was the first report of a war crime that had been committed by American soldiers, and even those who were violently opposed to the war in Vietnam would have never thought such an atrocity possible. In 1970, the events at My Lai were officially investigated by the Peers Panel and the findings were widely publicised and discussed. At home, the support for military action in Vietnam began to waver.

The text of Acting Facts is composed of different testimonies presented before the Peers Panel; it is an account of what happened in My Lai drawn from the public recollections of eye-witnesses and perpetrators. These memories are mediated through an actor who at times recites the text, but who also falls into acting it out, taking on the different personae – the bullying officer, or the grenadier who straightens up when addressing his superior. (…)

For Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger, theatre is not about enacting fantasies, but about the investigation of information transfer. They use theatrical form and its mediation in film as an approach to furthering knowledge about communication and about cognition. Their films concentrate on the performative aspects of introspection (…).

Moser / Schwinger work with non-narrative narratives; their films do not present a full story, they do not elaborate a linear development of one theme, but are rather elliptical and at times also decontextualised. Acting Facts therefore cannot only be seen as a film about Vietnam or about My Lai, as these places are never even mentioned in the spoken text, but as a pathology of armed conflict, as a study in dehumanisation and the methods of coming to terms with it.

Review by Axel Lapp

Performer: Roger Tebb
Camera: Frédéric Moser
Sound: Michael Grub, Tobias Schultz

Produced by Fine Arts Unternemen Film AG
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2006-2009 Germany

Internment Area, 2002

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 28’18 min
German speaking with English subtitles

The starting point of “Internment Area” is the therapeutic technique of the psychodrama, which was developed by Jacob L. Moreno in the 1930s. In its clinical application we try to discover the leading signs which have become one of the most important parameters of today‘s media production: The spread of intimacy in a spectacular dispositive.

The basis for the artistic work is the replica of Moreno‘s conceptual design of the scenic area. Through maximal visibility, free spaces, and the sparse usage of Helping objects, the stage is characterized by chairs and a mattress. The signs of an architecture which has extracted much from the 19th century and at the same time foreshadows the TV studios of the 70s shall be made visible. In this dispositive, a group of five protagonists portray a meeting according to the role playing technique constructed on the basis of real meeting protocol. The meeting was filmed with five actors and lasted 28 minutes. The video focuses on a boy who has fled a boarding school and has been caught. Now, a team of therapists is supposed to help him to work out his conflict situation. His mother accompanies him. At first only taking part in the meeting as an observer she nevertheless becomes involved in the play and enters the stage. In the corner of the stage is the director who functions as the preferred contact person of the protagonists. He asks questions, stimulates the play, and initiates the emotional outbursts. He is surrounded by two helping egos of the patient who take on the same attitude as he in order to express that, which he hardly dares to express.

In contrast to a conventional production in which the director the predetermined text and the parts clearly distributes, the actor directly becomes the author of his own fate, a situation which today is regularly exploited by TV entertainment. This is the technique of the confession. Because the architectural dispositive (scantiness, visibility by 360°) and the human dispositive (the players divide the two stabilizing modes of operation of authority among themselves, that is to say the mode of the director and that of the helping ego) are so conceived, that the patient has no other alternatives but to compromise himself, to tell and to show what he does, feels and projects in intimacy. The stage is available for his emancipation to feel and function better in his life. From then on the subjective story becomes material for the drama.

The large 1300 qm hall of the Wuerttemberg Art Society has led us to this project through its inherent utopia, its minimalism of the 60s, and its coercing materialism (square room of 36x36m without any opening besides the entrance door). The claustrophobic aspect which is explicitly reproduced in the film unexpectedly becomes apparent in this room. This is how the hall is reflected in its locked in state. The fragment of outdated theater architecture becomes the wonder of the modernistic ideal, which results in just such an exhibition hall. With this installation the dimension of the spectacular becomes logic with implicit regulations which we concentrate in this huge one eyed room in order to compress its occlusion.

Artists’ statement by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

Performers: Jan-Sandro Berner, Lou Bertalan, Angelika Fink, Sefanie Ströbele, Johann Zürner
Production manager: Holger Lund
Camera & Sound: Frédéric Moser, Philippe Schwinger
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit
Construction crew: Martin Lenz, Ernst Ludwig, Gerhard Fauser, Hermann Fellinger, Anton Schmidt

Produced by Academy Schloss Solitude, Württembergischer Kunstverein
Supported by MGF Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Nestlé pour l’art
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2002 Germany

Internment Area, 2002

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 28’18 min
German speaking with English subtitles

The starting point of “Internment Area” is the therapeutic technique of the psychodrama, which was developed by Jacob L. Moreno in the 1930s. In its clinical application we try to discover the leading signs which have become one of the most important parameters of today‘s media production: The spread of intimacy in a spectacular dispositive.

The basis for the artistic work is the replica of Moreno‘s conceptual design of the scenic area. Through maximal visibility, free spaces, and the sparse usage of Helping objects, the stage is characterized by chairs and a mattress. The signs of an architecture which has extracted much from the 19th century and at the same time foreshadows the TV studios of the 70s shall be made visible. In this dispositive, a group of five protagonists portray a meeting according to the role playing technique constructed on the basis of real meeting protocol. The meeting was filmed with five actors and lasted 28 minutes. The video focuses on a boy who has fled a boarding school and has been caught. Now, a team of therapists is supposed to help him to work out his conflict situation. His mother accompanies him. At first only taking part in the meeting as an observer she nevertheless becomes involved in the play and enters the stage. In the corner of the stage is the director who functions as the preferred contact person of the protagonists. He asks questions, stimulates the play, and initiates the emotional outbursts. He is surrounded by two helping egos of the patient who take on the same attitude as he in order to express that, which he hardly dares to express.

In contrast to a conventional production in which the director the predetermined text and the parts clearly distributes, the actor directly becomes the author of his own fate, a situation which today is regularly exploited by TV entertainment. This is the technique of the confession. Because the architectural dispositive (scantiness, visibility by 360°) and the human dispositive (the players divide the two stabilizing modes of operation of authority among themselves, that is to say the mode of the director and that of the helping ego) are so conceived, that the patient has no other alternatives but to compromise himself, to tell and to show what he does, feels and projects in intimacy. The stage is available for his emancipation to feel and function better in his life. From then on the subjective story becomes material for the drama.

The large 1300 qm hall of the Wuerttemberg Art Society has led us to this project through its inherent utopia, its minimalism of the 60s, and its coercing materialism (square room of 36x36m without any opening besides the entrance door). The claustrophobic aspect which is explicitly reproduced in the film unexpectedly becomes apparent in this room. This is how the hall is reflected in its locked in state. The fragment of outdated theater architecture becomes the wonder of the modernistic ideal, which results in just such an exhibition hall. With this installation the dimension of the spectacular becomes logic with implicit regulations which we concentrate in this huge one eyed room in order to compress its occlusion.

Artists’ statement by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

Performers: Jan-Sandro Berner, Lou Bertalan, Angelika Fink, Sefanie Ströbele, Johann Zürner
Production manager: Holger Lund
Camera & Sound: Frédéric Moser, Philippe Schwinger
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit
Construction crew: Martin Lenz, Ernst Ludwig, Gerhard Fauser, Hermann Fellinger, Anton Schmidt

Produced by Academy Schloss Solitude, Württembergischer Kunstverein
Supported by MGF Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Nestlé pour l’art
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2002 Germany

Internment Area, 2002

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 28’18 min
German speaking with English subtitles

The starting point of “Internment Area” is the therapeutic technique of the psychodrama, which was developed by Jacob L. Moreno in the 1930s. In its clinical application we try to discover the leading signs which have become one of the most important parameters of today‘s media production: The spread of intimacy in a spectacular dispositive.

The basis for the artistic work is the replica of Moreno‘s conceptual design of the scenic area. Through maximal visibility, free spaces, and the sparse usage of Helping objects, the stage is characterized by chairs and a mattress. The signs of an architecture which has extracted much from the 19th century and at the same time foreshadows the TV studios of the 70s shall be made visible. In this dispositive, a group of five protagonists portray a meeting according to the role playing technique constructed on the basis of real meeting protocol. The meeting was filmed with five actors and lasted 28 minutes. The video focuses on a boy who has fled a boarding school and has been caught. Now, a team of therapists is supposed to help him to work out his conflict situation. His mother accompanies him. At first only taking part in the meeting as an observer she nevertheless becomes involved in the play and enters the stage. In the corner of the stage is the director who functions as the preferred contact person of the protagonists. He asks questions, stimulates the play, and initiates the emotional outbursts. He is surrounded by two helping egos of the patient who take on the same attitude as he in order to express that, which he hardly dares to express.

In contrast to a conventional production in which the director the predetermined text and the parts clearly distributes, the actor directly becomes the author of his own fate, a situation which today is regularly exploited by TV entertainment. This is the technique of the confession. Because the architectural dispositive (scantiness, visibility by 360°) and the human dispositive (the players divide the two stabilizing modes of operation of authority among themselves, that is to say the mode of the director and that of the helping ego) are so conceived, that the patient has no other alternatives but to compromise himself, to tell and to show what he does, feels and projects in intimacy. The stage is available for his emancipation to feel and function better in his life. From then on the subjective story becomes material for the drama.

The large 1300 qm hall of the Wuerttemberg Art Society has led us to this project through its inherent utopia, its minimalism of the 60s, and its coercing materialism (square room of 36x36m without any opening besides the entrance door). The claustrophobic aspect which is explicitly reproduced in the film unexpectedly becomes apparent in this room. This is how the hall is reflected in its locked in state. The fragment of outdated theater architecture becomes the wonder of the modernistic ideal, which results in just such an exhibition hall. With this installation the dimension of the spectacular becomes logic with implicit regulations which we concentrate in this huge one eyed room in order to compress its occlusion.

Artists’ statement by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

Performers: Jan-Sandro Berner, Lou Bertalan, Angelika Fink, Sefanie Ströbele, Johann Zürner
Production manager: Holger Lund
Camera & Sound: Frédéric Moser, Philippe Schwinger
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit
Construction crew: Martin Lenz, Ernst Ludwig, Gerhard Fauser, Hermann Fellinger, Anton Schmidt

Produced by Academy Schloss Solitude, Württembergischer Kunstverein
Supported by MGF Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Nestlé pour l’art
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2002 Germany

Internment Area, 2002

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 28’18 min
German speaking with English subtitles

The starting point of “Internment Area” is the therapeutic technique of the psychodrama, which was developed by Jacob L. Moreno in the 1930s. In its clinical application we try to discover the leading signs which have become one of the most important parameters of today‘s media production: The spread of intimacy in a spectacular dispositive.

The basis for the artistic work is the replica of Moreno‘s conceptual design of the scenic area. Through maximal visibility, free spaces, and the sparse usage of Helping objects, the stage is characterized by chairs and a mattress. The signs of an architecture which has extracted much from the 19th century and at the same time foreshadows the TV studios of the 70s shall be made visible. In this dispositive, a group of five protagonists portray a meeting according to the role playing technique constructed on the basis of real meeting protocol. The meeting was filmed with five actors and lasted 28 minutes. The video focuses on a boy who has fled a boarding school and has been caught. Now, a team of therapists is supposed to help him to work out his conflict situation. His mother accompanies him. At first only taking part in the meeting as an observer she nevertheless becomes involved in the play and enters the stage. In the corner of the stage is the director who functions as the preferred contact person of the protagonists. He asks questions, stimulates the play, and initiates the emotional outbursts. He is surrounded by two helping egos of the patient who take on the same attitude as he in order to express that, which he hardly dares to express.

In contrast to a conventional production in which the director the predetermined text and the parts clearly distributes, the actor directly becomes the author of his own fate, a situation which today is regularly exploited by TV entertainment. This is the technique of the confession. Because the architectural dispositive (scantiness, visibility by 360°) and the human dispositive (the players divide the two stabilizing modes of operation of authority among themselves, that is to say the mode of the director and that of the helping ego) are so conceived, that the patient has no other alternatives but to compromise himself, to tell and to show what he does, feels and projects in intimacy. The stage is available for his emancipation to feel and function better in his life. From then on the subjective story becomes material for the drama.

The large 1300 qm hall of the Wuerttemberg Art Society has led us to this project through its inherent utopia, its minimalism of the 60s, and its coercing materialism (square room of 36x36m without any opening besides the entrance door). The claustrophobic aspect which is explicitly reproduced in the film unexpectedly becomes apparent in this room. This is how the hall is reflected in its locked in state. The fragment of outdated theater architecture becomes the wonder of the modernistic ideal, which results in just such an exhibition hall. With this installation the dimension of the spectacular becomes logic with implicit regulations which we concentrate in this huge one eyed room in order to compress its occlusion.

Artists’ statement by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

Performers: Jan-Sandro Berner, Lou Bertalan, Angelika Fink, Sefanie Ströbele, Johann Zürner
Production manager: Holger Lund
Camera & Sound: Frédéric Moser, Philippe Schwinger
Costumes: Sybille Gänsslen-Zeit
Construction crew: Martin Lenz, Ernst Ludwig, Gerhard Fauser, Hermann Fellinger, Anton Schmidt

Produced by Academy Schloss Solitude, Württembergischer Kunstverein
Supported by MGF Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Nestlé pour l’art
Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger

© 2002 Germany

Affection Riposte, 2001

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 5’17 min
German speaking with English subtitles

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger

© 2001 Germany

Affection Riposte, 2001

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 5’17 min
German speaking with English subtitles

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger

© 2001 Germany

Affection Riposte, 2001

Set and video projection. Digital video, colour, 5’17 min
German speaking with English subtitles

Written, directed and edited by Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger

© 2001 Germany

Tout ce chagrin, 2000
Double video projection, 3’46 min, loop

L‘hallali!, 1998
Digital video, 4’18 min