Herwig Weiser “Filmworks”

Open 22 January 2011from 18h – 21h
22 January to 26 February 2011

I am pleased to invite you to view Herwig Weiser’s “Filmworks” from 22 January to 26 February 2011.

Herwig Weiser is known for his experiments with sound sculptures and machines that he calls ‘analog sculptural processes.’ A production process involving a network of artists, scientists and technicians has yielded an almost unselfconsciously developed parallel practice of filmmaking. Herwig Weiser’s moving pictures tend to go beyond pure description into expressive territory with images that are as mysterious as those his real-time material explorations produce.

This exhibition presents a selection of Herwig Weiser’s moving pictures, including super 8, 16 mm and analog video explorations, videos made in collaboration with artists such as F.X. Randomiz, Philipp Quehenberger, Gabriel Lester, Wim Jongedijk and Thea Djordadze.  Also presented is a video relating to his latest machine, (currently being developed with the support of Dr Wolfgang Hansel of Happy Plating) which features an electro-chemical image machine called “Lucid Phantom Messenger.”

These filmworks show a natural talent in a medium ideally suited for Herwig Weiser’s interest in the relationship of sound, image and his focus on decaying technologies being returned to material origins. They also reveal a bit more about his personal motivations than what is immediately clear from his intriguing machines.

Herwig Weiser (b. 1969, Innsbruck) Weiser studied Architecture at the Technical University Innsbruck, Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, and at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne with Professor Siegfried Zielinski and Jürgen Klauke. His works have been shown in exhibitions across Europe, North America, and Asia, including the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, the China National Art Museum, the Nam June Paik Art Center, Southkorea, Centre Le Fresnoy Tourcoing/France, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Kunsthaus Graz and at Art Basel Miami Beach. Among his awards of distinction are the Hermann Claasen Award for Photography and Media Art (Cologne, 1999), Jury Award at the Festival of New Film (Split/Croatia, 2000), Transmediale Award (Berlin, 2001), and the Nam June Paik Award (Düsseldorf, 2002) and numerous production grants, including Dock e.V. Berlin(2010).

His films Entrée and Distroia (a video for Mouse on Mars in collaboration with Rosa Barba) were included in the Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Privatphysik was included in the Goethe Institute’s travelling exhibition “Constantly in Motion: Current Trends in Experimental Film and Video in Germany 1994-2004”

I hope you can see this show!