bioskop
lillevan / zeitblom
installation/ concert / exhibition

with:
boram lie [vc]
steve heather [perc]
martin siewert [guit]
zeitblom [electronics, b]
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fri. 28. april -- sat. 13. may 2006

opening -- fri. 28. april 28 -- 7:00 pm

concert -- fri. 28. april -- 8:30 pm

exhibition -- sat. 29. april to sat. 13. may -- 6:00 -- 11:00 pm -- tuesday to saturday

bioskop is a walk-in installation by videoartist lillevan, composer zeitblom and architects christian fuchs and jörg lammers [on architektur].

for the cinematic installation bioskop the artists involved explored the history of film, its scores and the cinema as a setting within the media and have dealt with all these facets intensively and extensively. artefacts from films and scores were processed, collaged and densely knit into a meta-film. the formal basic elements of the medium film are the central issue of bioskop. the result could therefore be called an absolute film.

film comprises a variety of aesthetic scopes for design. besides purely optical elements like camera angle or lighting, it is montage and sound which ultimately define what we experience as film. conventions and stereotypes in the filmic design of sound and vision developed very early on in the medium's history. they are codes of a cinematic language, which the viewers had to learn or which they have internalized already. partly modified or augmented by new elements, some of these codes are still valid within present-day filmmaking.

an example of such an established and accepted code is the so-called shot-reverse-shot. in order to dramatically enhance a dialogue, directors photograph the two people involved from different perspectives. through the montage of these different shots, the viewer experiences a conversation in a way which only the medium film allows. without having to move, one is able to follow the dialogue and view the persons speaking either head-on, sideways or looking at them over their shoulders. the history of cinema is full of other filmic codes, some lesser known or sometimes long-forgotten.

filmic sequences thus coded have been revealed, processed and made into collages by lillevan for bioskop. the projections of the digitally processed fragments have been compiled into thematic modules. it is no scientific analysis of film, but a sensual and artistic synthesis of structural and emotional aspects of film composition. the silent pictures from different eras in conjunction with the music of zeitblom are condensed into an endless metafilm.

the concert- and installation-situation of bioskop is equivalent to the classic performance of silent movies being supported by jukeboxes, gramophone records or live music, it seldom was really silent. on the opening night and the finissage of bioskop, the musicians boram lie [cello], steve heather [percussion], martin siewert [guitars] and zeitblom [elektronics, bass] will play live with(in) the installation.

zeitblom's compositions are geared to principles of montage and style within film. with a view to their emotional impact, themes and moods of films from diverse epochs are extracted. their original effects are foiled by placing them in new contexts without falling back on already existing scores or even quoting from them. the rhythm of the projected frames and the music is the synchronizing element of the performance. the score leaves the musician ample space for free improvisation and the reaction to single filmic sequences. thus, a direct interpretation of the soundless pictures through music can and shall only happen by accident. the difference thus evoked between the picture and the sound rather call for a dedicated viewer. bioskop refers to the infinite possibilities of the relation between picture and sound in the context of film.

with its architecture, bioskop challenges the cinematic concepts of frontal reception, of its manifest forms of projections and the static situation of its viewers. bioskop places the three dimensional silver screen at the centre of the performance location. it consists of two segments made up of eight cuboidal elements; the pictures are projected onto both sides. the viewer can walk around the screens, he/she can sit down in the corresponding seats and follow the picture on several levels of projection. thus the projection in itself becomes a truly spatial experience: the viewer is simultaneously in front of and behind the screen and can change position. the collaged arrangements of parallel projected fragments of film suggests a view behind the camera and thus also into the strategies and complexity of the images' origins.

bioskop is the final part of the bioplex-biomorph-bioskop installation-trilogy by zeitblom. the intitial parts have been presented at the schauspiel frankfurt and in the zkm / zentrum für kunst und medientechnologie karlsruhe. the dvd/cd bioskop will be released in september 2006 on scape.

bioskop is supported by the hauptstadtkulturfonds.

www.lillevan.com

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