22.04. ‐ 27.04.2025
LAA 2022

12th LICHTER Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers from all over the world. Since 2011, the LICHTER Art Award has been a platform for contemporary video art. More than 130 works were submitted for the 12th edition of the award, which is endowed with 1,000 euros.

The five film and video works of the seven nominated artists, Iris Blauensteiner & Christine Moderbacher, Alice Brygo, Catherina Cramer & Giulietta Ockenfuß, Stéphanie Roland and Melanie Jame Wolf will be presented by the LICHTER Filmfest in a curated exhibition in the space of our cooperation partner basis e.V. from April 22nd - May 15th 2022. The winner will be awarded in a prize ceremony at the 15. LICHTER Filmfest on May 9th, at 7 pm at the basis e.V., Gutleutstraße 8 –12, 60329, Frankfurt am Main. The Jury this year consist of Christin Müller (curator basis. e.V) Gunter Deller (filmmaker and artist) and Saul Judd (curator LICHTER Art Award).

At the LAA RETRO-KINO besides 35 selected contributions from the last eleven years also individual works of the following former jury members will be shown: “Out” by Judith Hopf, “Face To the Dawn of Liberty” by Mathilde ter Heijne, “Bolek” by Tamara Grcic and “Millis Erwachen” by Natasha A. Kelly.

THE NOMINEES

Iris Blauensteiner & Christine Moderbacher // Die Welt ist an ihren Rändern blau / The world is blue at its edges // 2021 - 14:30 Min.

The world is blue at its edges is about an uncertain life’s future and in many ways everything that speaks against life. Current and historic world affairs are portrayed in a dystopian fashion. Using found footage via youtube and other TV and web channels it deals with the covid pandemic, lockdown life, past and present police states, the iron curtain, migration and all the emotions that all these realities provoke. And all this from the perspective of an insecure, almost frightened mother-to-be. The world is blue at its edges had its world premiere at This Human World – International Human Rights Film Festival in Vienna.

Iris Blauensteiner is a filmmaker and author. Since 2004 she mostly worked as a script writer and director. Her latest films the_other_images, Rest and Sweat were screened at international festivals. In 2016 her first novel Kopfzecke was published and her newest novel Atemhaut was just published by Kremayr & Scheriau. She has received numerous awards. www.irisblauensteiner.com

Christine Moderbacher is an anthropologist and filmmaker. She currently is working on her postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institut for social and cultural anthropology in Halle. For her documentary films A Letter to Mohamed and Red Earth White Snow and others, she won a number of national and international prizes. www.christinemoderbacher.com


Alice Brygo // Soum // 2021 - 30 Min.

On the outskirts of Paris, Inti, Jai and Pauline are looking for an empty place – a rift through which the “Trouble Generation” they embody could slip, between the laws of the old world and the uncertainty of the one to come. A portrait of our time that oscillates between documentary film, art performance and surrealism. While occupying a former bank and waiting for the expiry of the period from which they can legally assert their domicile, the three squatters furnish the place with their memories and performative games. From intimate documentaries to dreamlike fiction, their spiritual and identity journeys unfold as they search for their place in a fragile present burdened with legacies from the colonial past. Soum had its World Premiere at the 72nd Berlinale.

Alice Brygo graduated from L’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 2019 and is currently in an artist residency at Le Fresnoy. Her artistic practice moves on the border between documentary method, fantastic cinema and art installations. She explores the notion of uncertainty in times of fragility, challenging notions of survival and community building through encounters between social groups and symbolic detours.


Catherina Cramer & Giulietta Ockenfuß //
Unleash the Beast, Chapter 2. Hagenbecks Zoo
// 
Installation // 2021 - 27 Min.

The video work Unleash the Beast (a series in 3 chapters) mixes elements of television documentation and fictional film. The combination of both formats breaks down patriarchal narrative forms and questions how history is made. The first chapter of the series tells the story of a female aquatic monkey whose path through life imagines an evolutionary story shaped by feminism. Unleash the Beast, Chapter 2. Hagenbeck's Zoo deals with questions of identity and transformation, as well as continuities of colonialism. The setting of the series is Mexico. In Chapter 2, the fictional protagonist, a water monkey, founds a political movement. The prose text Report to an Academy (1917) by Franz Kafka and historical facts on the wild animal trade are mixed with improvised dialogues along with a critical view upon the company history of the Hagenbeck entrepreneurial family.

Catherina Cramer is an artist and filmmaker. She studied at the art academies in Münster and Düsseldorf. She received her master class certificate from Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in 2019. Besides making films, her art is multimedial and includes performance, sculpture and environments. Her work has been exhibited in the Museum Folkwang, Essen; Kunsthalle Münster; Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen; Kunstmuseum Solingen; Kasseler Dokfest; Kunstverein Kassel; V ART CENTER Shanghai; Stroboscope ArtSpace, New York; Dortmunder U., Dortmund and K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

Giulietta Ockenfuß is an artist and filmmaker. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and received her master class certificate from Rita McBride in 2017. In addition to filmmaking, her work includes painting and performance. Her work has been shown at: Robert Grunenberg Gallery, Berlin; Wiesbaden Biennale; Rosenberg Gallery, New York; Synnika Space, Frankfurt; Berghain Kantine, Berlin and the Julia Stoschek Collection Düsseldorf. Ockenfuß lives and works in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main. She is supported by the Hessische Kulturstiftung and the Kulturstiftung NRW.


Stéphanie Roland // The empty sphere // 2021 - 19 Min.

The empty sphere is an experimental documentary portraying a space object and its fall into the darkness of a space cemetery. A woman scientist reveals her attachment to this object and the absence of images documenting this mysterious place. As a reverse sci-fi journey, this essay mixes reality and fiction to guide us, like a stalker, to the outskirts of an invisible place.

Stéphanie Roland is a visual artist and filmmaker. Working between documentary and the imaginary, Roland makes films and installations exploring invisible structures, hyperobjects and deep time. After graduating from La Cambre and Hito Steyerl’s class at UDK Berlin, she completed post-graduate studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio National. Her work is regularly shown at international level, her projects have been included in exhibitions of major institutions such as the Louvre Museum, Benaki Museum, Botanique, Kampala International Art Biennale, Bozar and Wiels. Breda Photo, Belfast Photo Festival, Encontros da Imagem, BIP Liège, MOPLA Los Angeles and Unseen are among the festivals dedicated to photography in which she took part. In 2017, she was selected in the group exhibition of the Antarctica Pavilion for the 57th Venice Biennale. Her films have been screened in international festivals such as FID Marseille, Visions du Réel, ZINEBI, FEST New Directors / New Films and Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin, among others. Her second short film Podesta Island won the Alice Guy Prize at the 32nd FID Marseille. www.stephanieroland.be


Melanie Jame Wolf // Acts of Improbable Genius // 2022 - 18 Min.

Melanie James Wolf’s Acts of Improbable Genius explores the libidinal economy of comedy: who the complex machinery of desire permits to be funny, and who it does not. Shot in black and white, this two channel video is inhabited by two anachronistic archetypal comedian personas: Stand Up Ron and Pierrot the Clown. Both are played by the artist herself in a form which draws on Renate Lorenz’s notion of transtemporal drag. These two ghosts of humor-past perform the same stand-up-routine on an eternal loop. This glitching use of repetition produces a hauntological survey of what it is to be an entertainer whilst seeking to displace the myth of the Universal Everyman. The film celebrates the death of a certain kind of comedian: the mythologies he represents and the violence he redistributes. Whilst simultaneously paying deep respects to the complex labor of professional performers — usually rendered invisible as a part of the act.

Melanie Jame Wolf is an interdisciplinary artist. She makes works about power and flows of immaterial capital and examines these economies and entanglements. Coming from a background in contemporary performance, Wolf works mainly with text, sound, moving image, choreography and textiles. Wolf pursues an ongoing interest in analyzing the idea of performance-as-labor in artistic, popular entertainment, and everyday contexts. Her work has been presented at: HAU - Hebbel am Ufer; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art; nGbK; The National 2019: New Australian Art Biennial at Carriageworks; Festival of Live Art, Melbourne; VAEFF Film Festival, NYC; Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona; Schwules Museum, Berlin; Sophiensaele, Berlin; Münchner Kammerspiele; Arts House, Melbourne and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. www.savage-amusement.com


LAA RETRO-KINO

The exhibition of the 12th LICHTER ART AWARD shows selected works from previous editions at the LAA RETRO-KINO. Among the presented artists are:

Luciana Lamothe (ARG) winner / Hanna Hildebrand (CH/D) / Rebecca Ann Tess (D) / Yuki Kishino (JAP) / John Skoog (S/D) winner / Clementine Coupau (F) / Murray Gaylard (ZA/D) / Luiz Roque (BR), Bertrand Flanet (F/D) winner / Mandy Krebs (D), Alina Vasilchenko (RUS) / Holger Jenss (D) / Luzie Meyer (D) / Stefan Ramírez Pérez (D) Nikita Diakur (RU/DE) Jakob Engel (DE) winner / Ingel Vaikla (EE/BE) Jonathan Van Essche (B) winner / Fabiano Mixo (BR/G) / Yalitsa Riden (CAN) / Sita Scherer and Tina Schönfelder (D) / James N. Kienitz Wilkins (USA) winner / Tobi Sauer (D) winner / Endre Aalrust / (D/NO) / Zanny Begg /(AUS) Andrew de Freitas (BR/CDN ) winner / Lisa Kori (USA) /Natasha A. Kelly (D)/ Vanessa Gravenor (CDN/D) / Constantin Hartenstein (D) / Florencia Levy (ARG) winner / Pol Merchan (E/D) / Frankfurter Hauptschule (D) winner / Julia Kater and Guilherme Peres (BR) / Tara Knuutila (CND)

As well as works by the following former jury members: Judith Hopf / Mathilde Ter Heijne / Tamara Grcic / Natasha A. Kelly


12th LICHTER ART AWARD

Opening
April 21st 2022 at 7 p.m.

Exhibition
April 22nd - May 15th 2022

Award Ceremony
May 9th 2022 at 7 p.m.

basis e.V.
Gutleutstraße 8–12
60329 Frankfurt am Main
Tue - Fri  2 - 7 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 12 a.m. - 6 p.m.
www.basis-frankfurt.de

– Free Entry –

Supported by:

Sparkassen_Kulturstiftung
Meso

JURY OF THE 12TH LICHTER ART AWARD

© Felix Fischl

Gunter Deller

Gunter Deller studied German language and literature, philosophy, theater, film and television studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and visual communication with a focus on film at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach/Main in 1999. Since then he has been working as a freelance artist in the field of experimental film and video art. He has participated in numerous short film festivals, including European Media Art Festival Osnabrückinterfilm Festival Berlin, Clermont-Ferrand, Impakt Film Festival Utrecht,Split International Festival of New Film, Kassler DokfestDresden Film Festival, Il Cinema Ritrovato Bologna. His films and video works have been presented at Kino im Deutschen Filmmuseum & Filminstitut, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Portikus Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, Podewil and Kino Arsenal, Berlin, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Lagerhalle, Innsbruck, J Filmclub 813, Cologne, MassArt Film Society, Boston and Gallery 825, Los Angeles. He has been a jury member at numerous film festivals and the German Short Film Award.

© Katrin Binner

Christin Müller

Christin Müller is an art historian and curator. She studied art history and German language and literature at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. She has been a curator at basis e.V. since 2011 and, in addition to numerous exhibition projects in Frankfurt, has also realized shows at the Goethe Institute Paris and the Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, as well as free projects in other exhibition spaces. She is also involved in several initiatives that deal with the creative use of spaces and the social potential of art. In her last exhibition project state of high performance, in 2021 at basis e.V., she presented works by artists such as the artist collective Claire Fontaine, Pilvi Takala and Martin Kohout.

© Katrin Binner

Saul Judd

Saul Judd, freelance curator in Frankfurt, is responsible for the video art section at the LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International. As part of the festival, he conceived exhibitions with renowned artists such as Keren Cytter and Mike Bouchet until he initiated the LICHTER Art Award in 2011. Since 2015, he has curated the LICHTER International Shorts film program. Other projects include BLANK SLATE, a publication on art, architecture and design, and since January 2016 SCHAUT! - an exhibition series at the Mal Seh'n Kino in Frankfurt. As guest curator of the film series Double Feature at the Schirn Kunsthalle, he presented the artist John Skoog in 2017.

>