Holly Zausner - Second Breath




Holly Zausner, installation view Wohnmaschine, 2005


 

January 21, - February 26, 2005

 

 

In the exhibition Second Breath the gallery Wohnmaschine is presenting the sculpture Spree from last year’s film by the New York artist Holly Zausner. The film is being shown for the first time from February 9–11 in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and then from February 12 in the gallery.

 

Second Breath is the second film in a Berlin trilogy by the artist. The actors in the film are, alongside the artist herself, three life-sized sculptures of soft, flexible material that relate to two groups of works by her, the radiantly colorful, anthropomorphic G-Men and G-Women.

 

In Second Breath Holly Zausner employs the style and mood of film noir. Like Expressionist filmmakers she uses extreme camera angles, close-ups, rapid cuts, and time-lapse photography – all ways of emphasizing subjectivity. The film is a mixture of Super 16 mm and video, using various speeds.

 

The film shows the artist with the long-limbed figures, as they jump from a bridge, fight, run through a tunnel, and, in the final scene, swim in the Spree. The figures that Zausner has created take on lives of their own through this actions; they are never just props but always the protagonists of her performances.

 

Second Breath takes place in both historical and contemporary locations in Berlin. In contrast to her last film, The Beginning, the artist moves about with her sculptures not only above the roofs of Berlin but also goes into the streets and sites of the metropolis, like the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Bismarck memorial in the Tiergarten, the Palast der Republic, and the roof of the Sony Center. The reactions of the protagonists in these social and cultural sites, their interaction with the sculptures – their alter egos – reveal both personal and historical meanings. Nevertheless, the motives for their actions – what they flee from, where they go to – are left mysteriously in the dark. Despite the difficulties the protagonists encounter over the course of the action, at the end of the film they illustrate an idea of hope. The film becomes a metaphor for the rebirth of the city.