Gerd Conradt

Portrait of Gerd Conradt

Gerd Conradt (born May 14, 1941 in Schwiebus ) is a German cameraman , director , author and lecturer for video practice. His films and video programs are mostly portraits - conceptually designed time images, often as long-term documentaries.

Life and work

In 1945 Gerd Conradt fled with his family from Schwiebus , their mother's home, from the Red Army to their father's family in Thuringia. In 1949 the family moved to Erfurt. Thuringia, the land of the Lutheran Reformation and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach , shaped his life. After graduating from elementary school, he left the GDR and lived in West Berlin at a boarding school run by the Protestant Church.

From 1960 to 1962 he completed an apprenticeship as a photographer, from 1962 to 1963 he studied commercial graphics and pottery at the Werkkunstschule Berlin. As an assistant director and actor, he worked at various theaters ( Vaganten-Bühne , Schillertheater ). In 1964 Conradt worked as an exhibition assistant for Arnold Bode at the " documenta III ", on which he also reported as a photographer. The practical handling of modern art and Arnold Bode's creative perspective shaped his view of culture in society.

In 1964 he realized the book "Confrontation" on behalf of the Berlin Senate on the Ford Foundation program in Berlin. From 1965 to 1966 he stayed in Rome for study purposes, discovered mannerism and made friends with the composer Frederic Rzewski . His first film work aroused his interest in the moving image.

From 1966 to 1968 Conradt studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) . After his studies (from which he and 17 other students were expelled for political activities) he shot his first TV film as a cameraman (director: Harun Farocki ) and together with Katrin Seybold “The Wild Animals”. With the “collective West Berlin film workers” (Katrin Seybold, Marion Zeman, Oimel Mai) he realized the film “Pieceworker at the Osram Group”.

From 1972 to 1975 Conradt held teaching positions at the Free University (Institute for Theater Studies) and the University of Education ( Christina Thürmer-Rohr ). In the following years contributions were made for the SFB : “Poetry Videos” and “Diary Notes” for the youth magazine “45Fieber” as well as the series “Experiment Deutsch” for school television.

In 1982 the studio community “Confu-Baja-Video” (Hanno Baethe, Monika Funke-Stern, Hartmut Jahn ) was founded. In the same year Conradt designed the installation “Mount the feet in the head” for the program “The Long Video Night”, NDR .

In 1984 and 1986 he did work for ZDF - editorial team Das kleine Fernsehspiel : “Der Videopionier”, “TV greetings from West to East” (with Michaela Buescher). In 1986 he shot the classic short film "EIN-BLICK" about the Wall in Berlin. Between 1987 and 1995 he traveled to India several times, visited the ashram in Poona and made the short film "The Empty Chair".

In 1990 he realized "Blueberry Forest" with Hans Rombach for AsahiTV (Japan). He traveled to Japan in 1991 to broadcast the show. The German version was broadcast as "Blaubeerwald" in 1992 on MDR.

In 1992 at the University of Salzburg (under Professor Siegfried Zielinski) the installation "Allegory of Television" was created. At the Berlin Academy of the Arts , European Summer Academy, he staged “The great white shark in the Black Sea”. In 1994 “transmediale” showed a retrospective by Gerd Conradt.

In 1996 he traveled to Tuva and shot the film “Dyngyldai” there (with Daniela Schulz). The film "Khomus" was made on the trip to Yakutia , which deepened the friendship with the jew's harp virtuoso Spiridon Shishigin. In Berlin he founded the duo “Prussischblau” with Sören Birke on the occasion of the “Zungenschlag” festival. The book was published in 1999 and in 2001 the film “Starbuck - Holger Meins” was released.

In 2000, together with Gerlinde Böhm, Ortrud Rubelt and the AG Dok , he realized the Long Night of Documentary Films, 350 ', SFB: “blick.berlin.dok”. He curated the video art program “On the Wall, On the Lauer” for the Goethe-Institut Munich.

"Save Berlin!", A short film in support of the citizens' initiative to clarify the banking scandal (with Daniela Schulz), premiered at the "Berlin International Film Festival" in 2001. In 2003, "Farbtest.3" was made at the "50. Venice Biennale ” (with Felix Gmelin).

In 2006 the book "An der Spree - der Fluss, die Menschen" (with Hedwig Korte) was published, followed by the film "The Spree - Symphony of a River". With the film, Conradt was invited to the "International Film Festival" in Pyongyang , North Korea.

In 2012, Gerd Conradt told his grandson in the film "Video Vertov", an electronic will, based on film and video documents from forty years of stories from his life. "Recycel Film" is what Conradt called a series in which he processed film and video documents from his archive.

Films & Videos

1966: Frederic Rzewski eats spaghetti at Carlone Via della Luce 55
1967: Santa Lucia
1968: Red flag color test
1969: The Wild Animals (with Katrin Seybold)
1978: father daughter
1978: Anna Astrid Proll - Her life in England (with Petra Goldmann)
1982: About Holger Meins - An attempt to understand our view today (with Hartmut Jahn)
1984: The video pioneer
1986: TV greetings from West to East (with Michaela Buescher)
1987: One look
1992: Blaubeerwald (with Hans Rombach)
1992: Affenliebe (Actor)
1995: Hold Me - Love Me. Irene Moessinger and the Tempodrom
1996: Ganz Ohr (midwife, car tuner, Phonebox user)
1997: Dyngyldai (with Daniela Schulz)
1998: people and stones
1999: Windsbraut - Marceline Loridan-Ivens (with Daniela Schulz)
2000: Blick.Berlin.Dok (with Gerlinde Böhm, Ortrud Rubelt)
2001: Starbuck - Holger Meins (with Hartmut Jahn )
2003: Save Berlin!
2004: color test 3
2005: Monte Klamotte
2007: The Spree - Symphony of a River
2008: color test 6
2009: Gretchen Dutschke, installation (with Michaela Buescher)
2009: Breath - Voice of the Soul (with Christine Ritt)
2010: Arirang - Letter To Barack
2012: Wall path relay
2012: Video Vertov
2015 Turn your eyes to the present
2016 preemption
2019 FACE_IT, The Face in the Age of Digitalism.
2019 THE PEOPLE UNITED

Exhibitions

1984: 1st Marler Video Art Prize "The Video Pioneer"
1985: NDR: Long Night of Video
1986: Center Georges Pompidou, Paris: TV greetings from West to East
1987: Anhalter Bahnhof Berlin: 100 days of the myth of Berlin
1988: Galerie am Körnerpark: From balcony to balcony
1990: Goethe-Institut San Francisco: Wall videos
1991: University of Salzburg: Allegory of television
1992: European Summer Academy Berlin: The great white shark in the Black Sea
1994: transmediale Berlin: Gerd Conradt retrospective
1994: Tempodrom Berlin: BOM, Baus Fundició
1995: Filmkunsthaus Babylon, Berlin: Gerd Conradt retrospective
1996: Festival of Asian Arts, Hong Kong: Yat-Kha (with Daniela Schulz)
1997: International Theater Festival Pakistan, Lahore: Morungen (with Daniela Schulz)
1998: Gashe Abera Molla Festival, Addis Abeba: Morungen (with Daniela Schulz)
1999: Podewil, Berlin: Tongues
1999: Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz: The human weapon
2000: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin: On the lookout at the wall
2003: 50th Biennale di Venezia, Dreams and Conflicts, with Felix Gmelin
2004: 11th Marler Video Art Prize
2004: Anton Reiser Werkstipendium (ARWS)
2005: Kunst Werke, Berlin: On the Presentation of Terror, RAF exhibition, advisory board
2007: KW Berlin, MedienKunstVerein Dortmund, “History Will Repeat Itself”, with Felix Gmelin
2008: Laying down bicycles in memory of Rudi Dutschke
2009: Project RED, Exhibition, Hong Kong (with Winnie Fu)
2010: Berlin films, Spree Kino, Deckshaus Berlin
2019 A leaden time in colorful costume, Ludwig Forum Aachen, exhibition: Flashes of the Future
2019 What it is worth living - dying for - worthwhile, Weißensee University of Art

Books

"Ford Foundation - Berlin Confrontation", 1965, Verlag Gebr. Mann
"Starbuck - Holger Meins", 2001, Espresso Verlag
"Starbuck - Il Corpo come Arma", 2013, Zambon Verlag
"On the Spree - the river, the people", 2006, Transit Verlag (with Hedwig Korte)
"rom 1966", poems & stories, gerd conradt, self-published

CDs

The Circle of Healing - Didgeridoo and overtones, Windpferd Musik, 1992 (Sangit Waldner, Gerd Conradt, Tom Meiser)
Prussian blue - Jew's harp, harmonica, voice, Shrutibox, 1998 (Sören Birke, Gerd Conradt)
Spiridon Schischigin meets Sören Birke and Gerd Conradt; Production: Lutz Glandien, Elsenstudio, 2006
MNO - from the middle of the alphabet (Sören Birke, Gerd Conradt, Lutz Glandien); Production: Lutz Glandien, Elsenstudio, 2007

Radio broadcasts

2010 The Boy with the Jew's Harp, Doris Netenjakob, Curiosity Enough, WDR5, August 24, 2010
2016 Experienced story Gerd Conradt, radio portrait by Doris Netenjakob, WDR5, May 15, 2016
2017 Location - documentary WEB series Großbreitenbach 100%, Dr. Sandra Maria Geschke, Radio Lotte, November 7, 2017
2018 1968 - Children's shops and anti-authoritarian education. A father and his daughter in conversation BR, moderation Klaus Schneider, 13.04.2018
2019 The long way to the championship, Video-Pionier-Gerd Conradt, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Britta Bürger, 07/24/2019

literature

Contributions in books

“Pioneers, Stones - Video” and DVD film “People and Stones”, in Stadt im Kopf, Hardt-Waltherr Hämer, Jovis Verlag 2002
“The video pioneer”, in Media Art Interaction, Rudolf Frieling, Dieter Daniels, Springer, 2000
“Close I see boundless distance”, in Transgressions of Borders, ed. Erwin Reiss, Siegfried Zielinski, Spiess, Berlin 1992
"Effects instead of montage", in Video Apparat / Medium, Art, Culture, Ed. Siegfried Zielinski, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 1992
“Dramaturgy as Process”, in video apparatus / medium, art, culture, publisher Siegfried Zielinski, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 1992
"A weasel sat on a pebble", teaching package, 9 poetry videos by Gerd Conradt, Langenscheidt, Berlin 1998
"Students stage literary texts", Heinz Blumensath, Landesbildstelle Berlin, Colloquium Verlag

Articles in magazines

“Young Italian Directors”, cinema 5/67
"Nuovo Cinema Germania", Filmcritica 181/1968
"Rapporto per un Cinema Militante", Filmcritika 200/1969
“Television as school in school”, film review, 4/70
“Work and Television”, film review 6/73
“There is something else, and we can do the other thing ourselves”, medium 9/75
“There must be cohesion”, arch + 31/76
“Production conditions for video”, päd.extra, 10/77
"Film as a commodity - video as a gift shipment", medium 14–15 / 78
"Bild - Abbild", taz, June 30, 1982
“Video Pirates in Amsterdam”, medium 11/82
"Band disease", medium, 6/83
"Visual exercises and dividing discs", medium 2–3 / 83
“Conversation about video after work”, medium 1/84
“To play into the impure”, medium, 4/84
“Effects instead of montage”, medium 7–8 / 84
"Video in a small television game", medium 11/84
"Eyes, ears, mouth", medium, 6/85
“The Video Pioneer”, Kunstforum, 9-10 / 85
"Video-Exposés", Journal Film, 9-10 / 89
"Ernst Jandl, my admiration", information on German didactics (ide), Vienna, 4/90
"Humphrey is the vice killer, and who am I?", In moments of learning, dffb 1996
"Dffb - 30 years also television academy", film and television, 1 + 2/96
“Red flag, yellow tie”, Der Tagesspiegel, September 26, 1996
“You King, Revolutionary Film - One Table”, film and television, 1/97
“The shaman puts on his fur”, Film and Television, 5 + 6/97
“A German Spring”, Tagesspiegel, May 14, 2000
“The distance to the ARD stations is great,” pro media, issue 12/2002
“Wild, but not free”, zitty 25/2004
“Not or being. Icons of Contemporary History “, On the Presentation of Terror: The RAF Exhibition, Volume 2, Steidel Verlag
"A leaden time in a colorful costume", Ludwig Forum Aachen, exhibition: Flashes of the Future, 2019

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Conradt, Gerd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German cameraman, director, author and lecturer in video practice
DATE OF BIRTH	May 14, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH	Świebodzin , Poland