Soul Sisters. Schwesternschaften

24.10.2023 / 19:00 – 21:00
With Maria Lassnig, Su Friedrich

Screening with films by Maria Lassnig and Su Friedrich

Introduction (in English): Sylvia Sadzinski, a curator and researcher of feminist and queer epistemologies; artistic co-director of the feminist Berlin art space alpha nova & galerie futura

Iris (1971, 10 min.)
by Maria Lassnig
Women´s bodies are presented as ambiguous erotic landscapes, sometimes classically baroque, sometimes cubistic visions in a distorted reflection, depending on the camera angle and shot size. Finally the female flesh frees itself to the accompaniment of electronic smacking noises and, ignoring all gender borderlines, unites with itself in Cronenbergesque growths.

Baroque Statues (1970-74, 15 min.)
by Maria Lassnig
In an associative montage, statues of saints in rigid and rapt poses are cross cut with those of real actors until the two can no longer be told apart. Gradually the real bodies break away from the constraints of their wooden models through increasingly improvised dance. A successful act of liberation from (Catholic) convention, which the material celebrates in an ecstasy of multiple exposures and psychedelic colors.

Damned If You Don’t (1987, 41 min.)
by Su Friedrich
Damned If You Don’t is Su Friedrich’s subversive and ecstatic response to her Catholic upbringing. Blending conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs, this film creates an intimate study of sexual expression and repression.
“The film is as hypnotic as a dream.” —Andrew Rasanen, Bay Windows
“The film energizes feminist deconstruction by locating it within a context of at least two forms of (redirected) film pleasure: the excitement of melodramatic narrative and the sensuous enjoyment of cinematic texture, rhythm and structure.”—Scott MacDonald, Film Quarterly

Soul Sisters Alice (1974/79, 5 min.)
by Maria Lassnig
Soul Sisters Alice is a sensual portrait of Lassnig’s like-named friend, an Icelandic artist. Seated in Lassnig’s studio, Alice reclines on a luxurious-looking, black velvet drapery while misting her naked body with red wine from an orchid sprayer. The wine dripping from Alice’s skin merges in a double exposure with pulses of light and fireworks. In Lassnig’s words: “An absurd game, just as life is!”

The screening is part of the collaborative project If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag. Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Admission free

daadgalerie, Oranienstr. 161, 10969 Berlin