Freitag, 27. November 2009, 24:00
BABYLON, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Großer Kinosaal
(Einritt frei | admission free)
»Six Apartments« 2007, 12:30 min
»Secret Life« 2008, 10 min
»Secret Machine« 2009, 14 min
»Last Day of the Republic« 2009, 8 min
Reynold Reynolds entwirft in installativen und dokumentarischen Arbeiten Bilder des Zerfalls, der Aufzehrung und Fäulnis. Auch in Six Apartments wird in intimen Portraits ein Kreislauf des Verfalls sichtbar. Im Split Screen tastet sich der Film in vorwiegend horizontalen und vertikalen Kamerafahrten sowie statischen Aufnahmen über sechs Wohnungen hinweg und gewährt Einblicke in den Alltag ihrer Bewohner. Dabei wird eine Bildhälfte nach der anderen von einem neuen Bildausschnitt überblendet und der Blick mittels alternierender auditiver Fokussierung abwechselnd in das linke und rechte Setting geführt, so dass eine narrative Struktur entsteht. Zurückgezogen in die eigenen vier Wände erleben die isolierten Bewohner eine dumpfe emotionale Leere, der sie mit pathologischen Kompensationshandlungen und durch eine allgegenwärtige Medienberieselung beizukommen suchen. Reaktionslos nehmen sie die Nachrichten aus der Welt draußen mit ihren pessimistischen Zukunftsprognosen von globaler Erwärmung, Krankheiten und schwindenden Ressourcen hin: Der Zuschauer erlebt parallel wie sich die Voraussagen über die Erdentwicklung im Mikrokosmos der Wohnungen und Heimbiotope prototypisch erfüllen. Bedrohlich nahe rückt der Verfall an den Menschen heran – zumindest hier hätte er eingreifen können. Gleichsam wird deutlich, dass auch er selbst seinem biologischen Determinismus nicht entgehen kann.
Erec Gellautz (videonale 2009)
english version
In works involving installation and documentation, Reynold Reynolds creates images of disintegration, consumption, and de-composition. A cycle of disintegration also becomes visible in the intimate portraits in Six Apartments. On a split screen, using primarily horizontal and vertical tracking shots as well as stills, the film feels its way through six apartments, providing insight into the everyday lives of their inhabitants. In the process, one half of an image is continually cross-faded by a new image detail and the gaze is led, by means of alternating the audio focus, from the left to the right setting and back so that a narrative structure is created. Having withdrawn into the privacy of their own homes, the isolated inhabitants experience a stunted emotional void, attempting to cope with it through pathological compensatory acts and an omnipresent, constant stream of media. Without reacting, they accept the news from the world outside and its pessimistic prognoses for the future: global warming, disease, and dwindling resources; parallel to this, the viewer experiences how the predictions about developments on earth are prototypically fulfilled in the microcosms of the apartments and domestic biotopes. Decline comes dangerously close to man – here, at least, he could have intervened. It becomes clear, as it were, that he himself also cannot escape his biological determinism.
Erec Gellautz (videonale 2009)
english version
In works involving installation and documentation, Reynold Reynolds creates images of disintegration, consumption, and de-composition. A cycle of disintegration also becomes visible in the intimate portraits in Six Apartments. On a split screen, using primarily horizontal and vertical tracking shots as well as stills, the film feels its way through six apartments, providing insight into the everyday lives of their inhabitants. In the process, one half of an image is continually cross-faded by a new image detail and the gaze is led, by means of alternating the audio focus, from the left to the right setting and back so that a narrative structure is created. Having withdrawn into the privacy of their own homes, the isolated inhabitants experience a stunted emotional void, attempting to cope with it through pathological compensatory acts and an omnipresent, constant stream of media. Without reacting, they accept the news from the world outside and its pessimistic prognoses for the future: global warming, disease, and dwindling resources; parallel to this, the viewer experiences how the predictions about developments on earth are prototypically fulfilled in the microcosms of the apartments and domestic biotopes. Decline comes dangerously close to man – here, at least, he could have intervened. It becomes clear, as it were, that he himself also cannot escape his biological determinism.
Erec Gellautz (videonale 2009)
