we are hosting an eveing with two guests from Berlin – Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn – artist duo working under the name of DISTRUKTUR.
DISTRUKTUR is a collaborative project consisting of two Brazilian born artists - Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn. In their artistic practice artists claim a space fluctuating somewhere between the big and small cinema. Consequently working with analogue film while shooting and mostly also developing their own material in Berlin’s artists-run filmlab – Labor Berlin, their films seem to create a kinematic time-space that is distinct from the ordinary even though they often use film settings of daily life. Whilst balancing between film history, occultism, underground and cliches of pop-culture, the films could be described as experimental-narrative, as they use script, actors and often self-made costumes. Also, both artists frequently appear as protagonists and musicians of their own film, but they avoid the conventional dramaturgy of mainstream and its psychological realism, being present in all stages of their work – from shooting, editing to sound production, acting and set-designs.
They started making films together in 1999, first on Super 8 and later on 16mm, their medium until the present day. From 2007 both artists moved from Brazil to Berlin where they joined artist’s collective and a filmlab Labor Berlin, practicing and teaching different film developing and editing techniques.
Distruktur's body of work takes form as films, installations, film performances, photographs, text and graphic. They also publish their zines as continuation of their films where they would draw some lines of their influences used in a resarch process, as well as their own written texts, poems, drawings and photographs.
Their films has a particularly playful nature, that can be approached as a certain musical rhythm accompanied with rummy performances, theatrical happenings and meditative contemplation on the time and space that, probably, has grown from the chemestry of a couple. In some interview Gustavo talking about their work says “I think it comes from something that is important to us, which is to create a system, a situation, a story, whatever it may be, and to believe in it. I think because we are two people, it is easier, because if you are alone in your belief in something you take the risk of being crazy, but when it comes to two…” Melissa: “ …it’s even crazier…”
Films by Distruktur have been presented in festivals such as Berlinale, Torino, Moscow IFF and Videobrasil, as well as in New Museum in New York, Paço das Artes in São Paulo, and Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre.
The duo lives and works in Berlin.
On 21st of May both artists will present three of their films, one of whom “In The Traveler’s Heart” will be screened on it’s original format - 16mm film projector.
PROGRAMME:
- IN THE TRAVELER'S HEART
16mm, 20min. Lithuania, Brazil, Germany. 2013
"Blessed is the one who waits in the traveller's heart for his turning."
L. Cohen, Poem 50
A character suddenly appears on the seashore.
The Traveler carries evidences about his origins and his culture: the poncho and the hat, the star and sun.
As he advances exploring the space, he will approach someone very similar to him. The path of the Traveler will lead him to an encounter with this double, or back to his point of departure. Is the other a guardian angel or a devil?
- TRIANGULUM
16mm, 22min. Prazil, Germany, Egypt. 2008
On the edge of the abyss a troupe of three meets faith, who appears in the form of a young woman. They are transported to an eastern metropolis, not knowing where to go or what to do. Random signs are the only directions to follow and will lead each one of them on a different journey. In perpetual movement, paranoids, they go further in search of balance.
- ÉTERNAU
16mm, 21min, Brazil. 2006
Travelling by land and sea and through the space-time, searching for gold and beauty, the Mercenary Archaeologists have trespassed the limits of the Ancestral Garden, causing disorder between the sky and the sea.
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Event will be held in English
