Catalogue > At random

The film ?Recitando? is the documentation of an encounter between workers from the Moscow paper factory ?October? and two filmmakers from abroad. The film experiments with and combines modes of documentary and fiction, and strategies of theatre and film, in order to investigate into and construct models of cinematography. The paper production process which seems to be captured in documentary shots is in fact staged for the camera by the workers, since the factory does not pro¬duce anything at the moment ? and this nonproduction is the condition for their appearance as actors in the film. For at the same time, the workers recount and reflect upon their current situation ? being filmed instead of producing paper ? in choric recitations and two songs, delivered in a manner reminiscent of Brechtian ?Lehrstücke?. The customary contrast of documentary and fictional modes, of reality ?caught unawares? and scripted enactment is thus being twisted and deconstructed. Additionally, the film is continually interrupted by intertitles citing discussions from late 1920s? Soviet cinema ? e. g., about documentarism à la Dziga Vertov and Esfir Shub, about Sergei Eisenstein?s reenactment of the October revolution ten years after the event and the film?s mixed reception, and of the relation between images and text ? thus evoking a friction between early avant-garde cinematography and today?s filmic modes, as well as rendering the question as to who speaks even more uncertain. The two filmmakers may not only come from a different country but even from a different era. The film thus experiments with different cinematographic models. Instead of pur¬porting to present something which could be considered as a finished film, it at¬tempts to create fissures in the cinematographic texture as spaces for the reflection on different filmic modes, on the interrelations of history of film, and on representa¬tion and reality. ?Recitando? was shot in the Moscow paper factory ?October? (formerly ?Red October?), which was founded in 1924. During Soviet times one of Moscow?s largest paper mills, the residual staff only rarely produces paper today. Parts of the com¬plex have been transformed into the art space PROEKT_FABRIKA, where the film premiered in January 2010.

Romana Schmalisch (1974) born and based in Berlin Romana Schmalisch graduated with an MFA from the Universität der Künste, Berlin, in 2002. She focuses on the architectonic urban space, its changes and the accompanying social changes. In her film works, she combines sequences shot by herself with image and film quotations and with text fragments in the form of a collage, juxtaposing different layers of times and imagery. Romana Schmalisch collaborated on various film projects with Robert Schlicht. Robert Schlicht (1975) born and based in Berlin Robert Schlicht has studied philosophy and literature and graduated from the Humboldt University Berlin. His thesis with the title ?Passage au Cinéma? examined the relation of Walter Benjamin?s film theory and his theory of history and historiography. Subsequently, Robert Schlicht was concerned with the interface of theory and film, and collaborated on various film projects with Romana Schmalisch. Recent exhibitions/screenings (selection): National Centre for Contemporary Arts, NCCA, Moscow (2011), centre d?art passerelle, Brest (2010), Proekt_Fabrika, Moscow (2010), Utopiana, Yerevan, Armenia (2009), National Centre for Contemporary Arts, NCCA, Moscow (2009), Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2009), Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg (2007), STUK Theater, Leuven (2007), Arsenal/Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin (2007), Arsenal/Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin (2005)