DokfestForum

DokfestForum was founded in 2010 in cooperation with Fridericianum. As a venue for lectures, artist talks and screenings located at the intersection of film and art, the DokfestForum extends the spectrum of the festival to include the fine arts. On two evenings, the Fridericianum will present artist talks that focus on experimental approaches to documentary practices: Who decides what will be documented and what not? What happens when the film itself as a medium of audio-visual recording becomes the focal point and documents its own materiality? Can that which has not been recorded, which has been given over to forgetfulness, subsequently be documented in retrospect? These questions will be the central concern of this year’s DokfestForum. The artist Mathilde ter Heijne and the filmmaker Birigt Hein – both of whom have Kassel connections through various professional activities – will present their own works and discuss them following the screenings. 

Thurs. 13.11.2014 Fridericianum 8 p.m.

Mathilde ter Heijne works mainly in the media of video, performance, sculpture and installation. In her work, she frequently deals with issues of gender and ritual practices. What will be represented and what not? Who will gain access to the larger process of writing history and who not? And how could these frames of reference and representation be subverted? Mathilde ter Heijne’s ongoing project “Woman to Go” (since 2005) consists of a series of postcards showing portraits of anonymous women dating from the beginning of photography to the 1920s. On the message side of the postcards, biographies of other more prominent women of the time can be read whose lives evidently and at the same time ambiguously collide with those of the women portrayed in the pictures. The documentation of events that have been insufficiently documented and represented becomes the focal point of the work. Identity is what is at stake here and it only seems to become a freely disposable product – ready „to go“. The discussion will be conducted by Nina Tabassomi. 

Short CV

Born in Strasbourg in 1969, Mathilde ter Heijne is a Dutch artist who has lived for many years in Berlin. She studied in Masstricht at the Stadsacademie (1988- 92) and in Amsterdam at the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten (1992-94). She has been a Professor of Visual Art/Media, Installation, and Performance at the School of Art and Design Kassel since April 2011. Her work has been shown internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions have included exhibitions at the Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg (2014), the Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (2011), the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg 2010), the Berlinischen Galerie, Berlin (2006), the Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2005) and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2002). Group exhibitions have included works shown at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2007), the Shanghai Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2006) and at MoMA PS1, New York (2005). 

Fri. 14.11.2014 Fridericianum 8 p.m.

Birgit Hein is one of the pioneers of experimental film. Together with her then husband Wilhelm Hein she realized numerous film projects and performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. To begin with, the materiality of film was the principal subject in this work; later the focus was more on socially taboo subjects such as violence and sexuality. In 1968, the Heins were cofounders of XSCREEN, the first screening venue for experimental films in Germany. The films which Birgit Hein has made independently are frequently unsparing confrontations with her own identity. These works are documentations of her own experiences and the societal interrelations of these experiences – recorded through a subjective film lens and expanding the classic form of film documentation. The discussion will be conducted by Susanne Pfeffer. 

Short CV

Born in 1942 in Berlin, Birgit Hein is a filmmaker and film theorist. She taught at the Braunschweig University of Art as Professor for Film and Video from 1990–2008. She is a member of the fine arts section of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. Among her best known films are „Abstrakter Film“ (2013), „Kriegsbilder“ (2006), „La Moderna Poesia“ (2000), „Eintagsfliegen“ (with Gabriele Kutz, 1997), „Baby I Will Make You Sweat“ (1994), „Die unheimlichen Frauen“ (1991) and the films made with Wilhelm Hein, „Love Stinks“ (1982) and „Rohfilm“ (1968). Together with Wilhelm Hein, she was responsible for the department of experimental film at Documenta 6 (1977). Hein has authored numerous publications about experimental film including „Film im Underground“ (1971) and „Film als Film“ (1971). Hein’s works have been shown in numerous retrospectives, in individual screenings and exhibitions, including at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2010), at MoMA, New York (1996) and at the documenta 5 (1972).