title photo: Michael Jungblut
IMDb
Crew United
blinkvideo
German Films Quarterly 1/17
multi-channel video installation, photography
2 x 17:38min, HD, 2x 9:16, 2x stereo, Loop,
1 x 05:27min, HD, 16:9, Loop
2016
TIMECODE DETAIL 2-Channel:
TIMECODE DETAIL 1-Channel:
TIMECODE 3 Photos:
TIMECODE
a text by Ines Wittneben
TIMECODE is a multipiece installation with a 2 channel video work in its center.
In a chamber play-like situation, the viewer adopts the perspective of an invisible photographer in the photo shooting of a just beyond middle aged couple (Corinna Kirchhoff and Matthias Neukirch). Obviously they aim to create the perfectly harmonious proof for their love.
Already in the first second the film presents its formal speciality:
Aside from an almost soundless noise and a repetitive mechanic popping of a flashlight, nothing can be heard. The attention of the viewer is drawn immediately to the protagonists, who, technically separated in one video channel each, are sitting together in front of the camera and posing with a white pigeon in their hands. The slow motion the shooting is presented in, unveils all the small things that normally remain hidden from the viewer: The details of the facial expressions and gestures show a coming and going of a staging for an external perception and a concentrating on being a couple; a constantly interrupted and then reanimated approaching and communicating, the closeness and distance of the two characters regarding the spatial aspect as well as the emotionally roleplaying.
The repeatedly clutched pigeon as fragile protégé and symbol at the same time, is passed back and forth between the partners. It actually gets more attention than the persons devote to each other, simultaneously is a connecting link and a disruptive element. Beloving tenderness and intimacy can be found in this short time play as well as insecurity, vulnerability and loneliness.
With brilliant actors, a sensitively led camera and a clear, reduced visual language Petra Lottje’s installation presents a sympathetic, tension-filled and intensive close-up of the small but complex universe of a relationship.
Without creating a concrete narrative by using backgrounds, dialogues, and surroundings, this artwork is able to visualize the essence of human coexistence that might affect us and lead us to reflect on these smallest social units and beyond.
In contrasting addition, the second video of the installation shows the action in real-time.
Here, the camera surrounds the couple as well as the photographer.
It provides the viewer with a distant perspective on the couple, that now seems a lot more harmonious and thus expose the truths that we believe to find in our daily perception.
A highly symbolical and associatively charged picture of feathers, eggs as well as dead and alive pigeons is transparently placed on the video.
The installation is completed by the photographies taken during the shooting.
(Ines Wittneben, 2016. Translation: Ines Wittneben, Stefan Trinks)
director: Petra Lottje
produced by: Petra Lottje
cast:
woman: Corinna Kirchhoff
man: Matthias Neukirch
photographer: Michael Jungblut
crew:
director of photography: Andreas Gockel, bvk
chief of lights: Julius Gruhlstein
photographs: Michael Jungblut
steadycam operator: Peer Gordon
animal trainer: Mike Schüler
make up artist: Elke Graalfs
taxi dermist: Michael Weiss
foley artist: Olaf Simon, bvft
sound design: Linus Nickl, bvft
catering: Norbert Riechmann, Helen Acosta Iglesias
thanks: Ines Wittneben, Gerhard Wissner, Kai Thomas, Fa. Hochzeitstauben Paradies Berlin/Brandenburg + Mike Schüler, Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH, Medien Werkstatt Berlin, Deborah Phillips
location: Silent Green Kulturquartier
with friendly support: Berliner Senat, kulturelle Angelegenheiten
