Knowledge Ties #7: Materials from below

18.30
Sonne Unter Tage / Sun Under Ground
Mareike Bernien & Alex Gerbaulet, D 2022, 39 min. German with English subtitles. DCP

Es gibt keine Angst / Afraid doesn’t exist
Anna Zett, D 2023, 31 min. German with English subtitles. DCP

20.00-21.00
Conversation with Mareike Bernien, Alex Gerbaulet, Suza Husse, Elske Rosenfeld and Anna Zett

The evening comprises two parts: a screening of the two films and a subsequent conversation with Elske Rosenfeld and Suza Husse, who initiated the research and exhibition project "wild recuperations. material from below” at the Archive of the GDR Opposition in Berlin-Lichtenberg in 2018, where both film projects took on their first research based form.

A gravel path on the edge of a village between fields, across to a fence. Drawn into the map of former uranium mining areas in Saxony and Thuringia. Night. Darkness. The ground exposes the film, leaving a trail of its invisible rays. With Sun Under Ground Mareike Bernien and Alex Gerbaulet follow this trace through space and time and look at the material, metaphorical and geopolitical rearrangements of the element uranium.

For Afraid doesn’t exist, Anna Zett retraces the mood of her childhood in the GDR Opposition Archive in Berlin.The artist interweaves video and sound recordings of the environmental library and poetry scene with a stirring collage of underground music from the late GDR. Despite persistent experiences of violence, the protagonists insist on individual expression, emotional connection, and political self-determination. 

The discussion after the screening picks up some of the themes and questions that came up during this collaboration - especially with regard to the role of biography and affect in artistic approaches to (post-)GDR history and identity.

Mareike Bernien is a Berlin based artist, filmmaker and teacher in the field of filmic research and critical archival practices. Since 2018 she has been part of the production platform pong film and was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme 2020/21.

Alex Gerbaulet is a Berlin based filmmaker, producer and film educator with focus on video art, essay, and documentary film practice. Since 2014 she has been part of the production platform pong film and was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme 2020/21.

Suza Husse is interested in queer, feminist, and decolonial approaches to bodies, socialities, ecologies, and histories. She has been working as the artistic director of the interdisciplinary art space District Berlin with an emphasis on artistic research, collaborative practices, public space, critical education, and political imagination. 

Elske Rosenfeld works in different media and formats. Her primary focus and material are the histories of state-socialism and its dissidences, and the revolution of 1989/90. Her ongoing project “Archive of Gestures” investigates how political events are manifested and archived in the bodies of their protagonists.

Anna Zett is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. Centering dialog and play, her emotional, analytical and often participatory practice invites response and recovery. Her films, books, radio plays, installations, and live formats have been shown internationally since the release of her first essay film in 2014. Anna Zett was born in Leipzig, lives in Berlin and was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme 2020/21.