Retrospektive Werner Nekes Beuys & Amalgam & Makimono
Beuys
Text of the film by Werner Nekes and Dore 0.
1981 11 min. 16mm colour
The term 'visual arts' that is prevailing in modernity is really a symptom for the reduction of perceptional categories within the human creativity as a whole. An anthropological conception of art - and I have proved for instance in sculptural theory that you hear a sculpture before you see it, that consequently the auditive element is not just an equal part, but a constituent of the perception of plastic art - confronts you with the task of exploring the conception of creativity in all directions, of spreading it out and substantiating it anthropologically. So for instance, the human creativity potential as a whole doesn't only comprise the recognition criteria in thought, but it also comprises the sensational categories in the middle of the soul, that is, the moving element, and it positively comprises the will potential in human will. It is this interpretation of human creativity potential, beginning with the triple position, the connections of will, sense, and thought categories, which will get you to the more differentiated position of considering the perception, too, and thus the connection of human senses, discovering that for example seeing, the visual sense, the auditory sense, the static sense, the architectonic sense, the haptic sense, can be thought forward into the sense of feeling, the sense of will, the sense of thinking, and many other still to be developed senses.
This means: Man in his creative potential is a developing being, and in the next cultural epoch, which is what we are trying to reach and where the conception of self-determination of man in all positions of work can lead to free development of human activities, we shall be confronted with the possibility to develop new sensory organs, new qualities of creativity in the given entities of will potential, potential of feeling, and thus potential of movement and an intellectual sense of form and thought. So, when I chose primordial materials, such as fat, felt, or copper, I could, to a certain extent, anticipate, that such materials would have a provocative effect in the time I'm living in, which means they would provoke questions for reason and purpose. So these materials were not chosen to do again what has been done already by Duchamp, that is, to exercise in a way a revolution in the museum without acting accordingly with regard to the conception of capital. I could not afford that; those materials, however, have proved to be adequate, with regard to fat, to will potential, with regard to copper, to the element of movement, and with regard to felt, to the isolating, analytical characteristics in thought. So, the sculptural theory contains the possibility to orientate the entire social organism to a new level, and thus to a new height, and thus to a future human culture, and simultaneously to systematically state the measures that should be taken to get from the given to a future form. 'To get back to the willing, which is a completely neglected category in science of creativity: we also have to deal with the conception of warmth, which I have quite often brought up in sculptural theory as a possibility to really hatch the future in this element of warmth or will as in an - I might say - aesthetic willing. It has become obvious, however, that this hatching process may indeed begin in a chaos of warmth, but that it does require strategy and tactics to lead to future possibilities of man; this has also been shown by the critical reproaches against an attempt like that, which made it necessary for the author to give accordingly deep reasons. That this whole approach, that this whole approach, that this whole approach .......
Amalgam
1976, 16 mm, Farbe, 72 Min.
Sound: Anthony Moore.
"a sequence of 4 films: knots, texture, web, plaited--four approaches of writing with light to reflect the possibilities of painting within film."--W.N."This film not only achieves painting's high pictorial quality, with 24 living' canvasses per second, PLAITED in fact leaves Pointilism far behind. If filming really is painting with light, as Louis Delluc once postulated, then it was surely only a matter of time before filmmakers would turn to the principles of Pointilism. For a long time the innovator Nekes pondered about this project . The result, in its effect on the audience, exceeds all expectations..."--Ingo Petzke. (Aus: filmmakers cooperative catalogue No. 7)
This film not only achieves painting's high pictorial quality, with 24 "living" canvasses per second Geflecht in fact leaves Pointillism far behind.
Double to quadruple exposures of the original material with normal exposure of subject at 24 frames per second and the most various techniques of single frame exposure with different point distribution. Optical processing: double exposure with diverse phasings of freeze frames of varying length (from 10 to 120), fading in and out constantly. Freeze frame (of stills and four picture sequences), shots (nonanimation) with triple-exposure of point planes in mountainous waves of light."If filming really is painting in light, as Louis Delluc once postulated, then it was surely only a matter of time before film makers would turn to the principles of Pointillism. For a long time Nekes the innovator pondered this project. The result, in its effect on the audience, exceeds all expectation...
In Nekes' films it is increasingly difficult to maintain an intellectual distance to the images presented. The reason: the inner structure grows more complex at precisely the same rate at which the outer structure is reduced. In this development Geflecht represents a culmination and it is incomprehensible why (inattentive) viewers still react so violently to Nekes' radical aesthetics. The stumbling blocks of outer structures, ostensibly protruding in an all too jarring manner, have all but disappeared. However, even those not wholly fascinated and thrilled, might make an interesting discovery pertaining to the technique employed. Up to now, one part of T-WO-MEN excepted, Nekes has processed his material in the camera itself. No one save Stan Brakhage has exploited the potential of the 16 mm camera to the same degree as Nekes, discovering and inventing new possibilities all along. Geflecht breaks radically with this tradition, since it was given shape only in the optical printer. This is new for Nekes, and it remains to be seen whether it is a unique diversion, necessitated by stylistic considerations, or a departure to new shores.More in line with the known Nekes is the programmatic title of the film, which refers to its optical processing. 11 shots, the length of which ranges from 18 seconds to 3 minutes 46 seconds, are arranged in loose sequence. Each individual frame from the original material, in part processed in the camera, is extented 10 to 120 times. During this extension the original image is faded out slowly while the following is faded in at an equally slow pace. This creates dissolving segments linking one picture to the next and weaving them together to form a network, Geflecht. (Ingo Petzke, in: Bericht über die 22. Westdeutschen Kurzfilmtage, Oberhausen 1976).
Makimono
1974, 16mm, colorIso, 38m,
Sound by Anthony Moore.
Unfolding of a continuously varying impression of the representation of a landscape.
MAKIMONO reflects the horizontal and vertical legibility of film. The progression of filmic language.
"One can see again the very beautiful MAKIMONO of Werner Nekes already presented at the Cinematheque Francaise ... is beyond the experimental. It's a work which gives itself as - and gives us -the joy and excitement of fullness." - Helmuth Fenster, L’Art Vivant (Aus: canyon cinema, film/video catalog 2000)
Makimono is an Asian roll painting depicting a landscape. The subject of the film is the language of film itself, its mutability and its influence on the viewer's vision and thinking. While the film gradually progresses the viewer is gently invited to reflect on the development of the film in its expressive potential.
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