Tobias Zielony

In addition to his photographic praxis which has earned him a great deal of attention in the last few years, Tobias Zielony has also been involved in filmmaking. This led to the making of Le Vele di Scampia (2009), for example. It is a stop motion animated film created from individual photographs: night shots of the eponymous colossal apartment building complex in Naples – including the youths who live there – form an impressive representation of a very specific milieu. Coming from the documentary tradition, (allegedly) marginal social phenomena such as criminality and prostitution pay an important role again and again. And the locations chosen by Zielony also seem to be sites at the margins rather than at the centre of general attention. While some of his works show evidence of socio-cultural poses or coded self-staging, Zielony’s more recent films allow us to recognize his interest in scenic strategies related to the way they are made, a tendency made more explicit due to the references to filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger or Luis Buñuel.

Film Program

Tobias Zielony
The Deboard, 2008, 7 min
Le Vele di Scampia, 2009, 9 min
Der Brief (The Letter), 2013, 5 min
Danny, 2013, 7 min
Al-Akrab, 2014, 7 min
Kalandia Kustom Kar Kommandos, 2014, 3 min

Presented by Tobias Zielony

Tobias Zielony lives in Berlin. Exhibitions (selection): German Pavilon, Venice Biennale (2015); Jenny Jenny, Berlinische Galerie (2013); Manitoba, Camera Austria, Graz (2011).