An Evening for Daniel Spoerri. Film, Conversation, and a Picture Series

Daniel Spoerri makes artworks out of discarded objects that have lost their original purpose. Anja Salomonowitz makes films envisioning times and conflicts. Their paths cross in the film entitled This Film is a Gift (original title: Dieser Film ist ein Geschenk), which interlinks the work of the two artists in a very personal manner. The title of the film alludes to the fact that it is more about the gesture of a gift rather than a depiction. Salomonowitz thanks Spoerri with a portrait that frequently links his artistic work with objects to his own biography. Spoerri was born as Feinstein and his father was a Romanian Jew who was imprisoned and murdered. The film also prospects for the future and extends memory by featuring Salomonowitz’s son Oskar as a stand-in and partner for Spoerri. Nothing is lost, and everything comes together again in surprising new ways. (Dominik Kamalzadeh)         

Program

Welcome by Karola Kraus (General Director, mumok)

Preview: Dieser Film ist ein Geschenk (This Film is a Gift), Anja Salomonowitz, 2019, 72 min
With Daniel Spoerri, Oskar Salomonowitz, and Federico Vecchi
Camera: Martin Putz, Cut: Eleonora Camizzi, Petra Zöpnek AEA, Sound Design: Veronika Hlawatsch, Music: Bernhard Fleischmann

Daniel Spoerri and the film team will be present.
Followed by conversation with Anja Salomonowitz and Alexander Horwath

Anja Salomonowitz develops an unconventional cinema idiom in her films, combining documentary, feature, and thesis-based genres. The experiences of real people are heightened through artistic defamiliarization. Salamonowitz’s hybrid documentary films have gained international recognition, winning many film awards and mentions in research and literature on documentary filmmaking.

Daniel Spoerri, born 1930 in Galati (Romania), fled to Switzerland in 1942. In 1960 Spoerri cofounded the Nouveaux Réalisme movement, and was one of the signatories of its manifesto in Paris, having worked previously as a dancer and theater director. He gained world renown as an artist primarily for his “snare pictures” (“tableaux piège”). As a professor and teacher he realized numerous exhibitions and banquets. He founded the Eat Art movement, with his Restaurant Spoerri and the adjoining Eat Art Galerie, which opened in 1968 in Düsseldorf.

Alexander Horwath, curator and writer, director of the Viennale (1992-1997) and the Austrian Film Museum (2002-2017)