Directors Lounge Screening:
Thorsten Fleisch
Video and 16mm Film programme
Selected from his private Educational Film Archive
Thursday, 1 November 2012, 21h
Z-Bar, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte

Thorsten Fleisch, artist and filmmaker who lives in Berlin, combines many of his interests and talents in his new film Hex Suffice Cache Ten. It might be astonishing to see the experimental filmmaker and alumni of Frankfurter Städel School making a science fiction film that combines narrative B-movie aesthetics with experimental film techniques and adaptations of Manga, Cronenberg, Splatter Movie and Cyberpunk. On the other hand, the openness of the film's narrative may be read in many ways, and is possibly not only accessible but totally enjoyable for both lovers of the experimental genre and trash film addicts. In certain ways, Fleisch uses old technological artifacts in order to create science fiction, the lately popular steam punk is similar to the artist's esthetic strategies. However, over the course of the film, the dramatic interactions between the characters of the film are almost entirely resolved by some kind of screen, some intermediate interface. Furthermore, those interactions both stay ambiguous and could be characterized as being driven by irrational forces.

At the beginning of the evening, Thorsten Fleisch will show a selection from his archive of educational films. He is collecting all kinds of original silent 16mm films from science, often medical movies and educational films meant to be shown in school. These films, from 30's to 50's in esthetic ways to us often seem to be strange. They receive their new meaning by decontextualization and the alienation of time distance. They may appear funny, but the rigor of their esthetic quality may also be disclosed as having psychotic qualities.  Thus, apart from being curiosities, these collected films by Thorsten Fleisch - together with his new film "Hex Suffice Cache Ten"- may remind us of the influences contemporary media has on our subconsciousness by their mere media qualities. Something that might be harder to perceive if looking with naked eye at most recent renderings of "media normality".

Black Sun Cinema: White Noise
A film programme curated by Florian Wüst
in association with Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, and Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin
Saturday September 22nd 2012, 19h
TDC, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St., Cork

Black Sun Cinema is partnering with Cork Film Centre this September 22nd to present a very special evening of experimental films from Berlin’s famous Arsenal archive. We are delighted to welcome Florian Wüst, Berlin-based artist and film curator, who programmed and will present this selection of works with the theme ‘White Noise’.

‘White Noise’ centres on legendary German underground film icons Wilhelm and Birgit Hein and gives Cork audiences the rare opportunity of seeing four of their films.

The programme as a whole reflects the deconstruction of cinema and television not only as a monolithic system of representation and a dream factory, but also as an instrument of corporate power and social control. Images of (human) disfigurement and the mysteries of childhood mix with the penetration of the senses on different levels. The combination of poetic collage, critical analysis, and radical abstraction intends to challenge the emotional as well as physical capacities of the audience. ‘White Noise’ also features works by internationally acclaimed artists and filmmakers: Thorsten Fleisch, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Sharon Lockhart, Gunvor Nelson, Richard Serra & Carlota Fay Schoolman, and Wolf Vostell.

Where possible, films in this programme will be projected from 16mm film prints.