I was born in Ingolstadt, Germany, in 1947. My desire was to become a poet. But after my studies of German and Roman languages and literatures in Munich, Paris and Frankfurt a.M. I decided to become a teacher due to the influence of the Frankfurter Schule (School of Frankfurt). I taught for years before finding out that for me film was the appropriate medium of artistic expression. It was not language, but visual art that opened the way to a very personal and intense poetic work. Since 1986 I created a body of work consisting of around thousand short films that I use for my screenings and also for exhibitions. I live in Berlin and Paris.
How I make my films
Video by Aaron Scott
«My films record encounters with events and images in the real world that attract me […] There is no postproduction in my work. Every single film preserves and reflects the traces of its creation, the sensations and emotions I felt in the moment of filming.»
«Each time I present my films I make a selection […], creating a unique program for each screening. In this way programming, too, has become an essential part of my practice, because each temporary montage of films […] reveals different aspects of both the films in themselves and their relations to each other. In this way my work remains fluid, open to changes in reading and interpretation.»
How I present my films
Video by Aaron Scott
«[…] I have developed my own personal approach for screening my films. The projector itself is an integral part of the screening. For the soft buzzing of the motor running at 18 frames per second provides a gentle soundtrack to the otherwise silent films. In order to obtain the proper position for the projector itself, I often build precarious pedestals and ladders out of materials found on the site: boards, chairs, tables, even piles of books. Because of this intimate relationship with the site the screenings often gain the character of a unique performance.»
In 2006, Lowave in Paris, published FRAGIL(E), a book and DVD about my work.