“I went to the cinema with my mother when I was only four years old, because she was alone at
home with a little kid and wanted to go out and be entertained.” The protagonists of my film “Cinema Cristal” meet in a staged
cinema setting; illuminated by the reflection of the projected images, they exchange memories about the cinemas of Laleh Zar
street (Tehran, Iran). Cinema, a place often meant to become invisible, is brought into the light. Cinema becomes a social
space, a site of encounter and shared concerns.
Where films are made for me always exceeds
the notion of “filming location”. It is a place where community is constituted in a very specific way. Due to its mode of
production, filmmaking is per se a social and political practice. This shaping of community during the process of filming
is at the core of my work. I try to find new settings in which the organization of a community and the topic of the film enter
into a dialogue with each other. Along concrete and fictional places in my work – the cinemas of Laleh Zar Street, a language
school in a suburb of Paris, a castle, and the art center CAC Brétigny – I explore the question how films and places relate
to each other.
Marlies Pöschlis an artist and filmmaker based in Vienna. As founding
member and chair of The Golden Pixel Cooperative, she is committed to sustainable conditions for the production and distribution
of moving image works. From 2018 to 2020 she lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her films and installations have
been shown internationally in solo exhibitions, at biennials and film festivals, most recently at Salzburger Kunstverein (AT),
CAC Brétigny (FR), the Vienna Biennale (AT), the Edinburgh International Film Festival (GB) and Cinema Vérité (IR).
Date: March 4, 2021; start 4pm
You are welcome to join the statement via zoom meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/98964142334www.marliespoeschl.netgoldenpixelcoop.com
Imagecredits:
Marlies Pöschl, Cinema Cristal, 2017, IR/AT, HD video, 16:9, 15 min, colour, 5.1 sound, video still
www.ortsbezogenekunst.at