Michael Brynntrup

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Michael Brynntrup (1984)

Michael Brynntrup (born February 7, 1959 in Münster in Westphalia ) is a German filmmaker and video artist . In addition to experimental films and video installations , his better-known works also include electrography , digital art and net art projects . Michael Brynntrup has been Professor of Film / Video at the Braunschweig University of Art (HBK Braunschweig) since 2006 .

Life

Michael Brynntrup sums up the biographical information on his website as follows: “Death of the identical twin brother at birth, since then studying philosophy.” This short biography is programmatic: death, birth, motifs of doppelgangers and repetitions can be found in almost every one of his films, always also with philosophical undertones. This is how his film Suddenly and Unexpectedly begins - a Déjà-Revue (1993) with a quote from Michel de Montaigne : “Sense of death is sense of freedom. Those who have learned to die no longer understand service. ”In Brynntrup's work, freedom and its limits are always thematic, content and form. In his films he deals with the crossing of boundaries, extremes and taboos; as an experimental filmmaker he investigates a. a. social media reality (as in the film EKG Expositus , 2003), and tries to develop a language of film that goes far beyond technical limits, general viewing habits and film conventions.

Michael Brynntrup (aka Brinntrup, Bryntrup) comes from a long-established Westphalian farming family near Münster. Here Brynntrup graduated from high school Paulinum in 1977 and then studied law, then philosophy. In 1981 Brynntrup moved to Freiburg and studied literature and art history there. He formulates his theoretical examination of contemporary art in the essay A preliminary study to conclude. (1981).

Work and effect

On a month-long trip to Italy (1981/82) he began his first film September, Wut - ein Reise (also: Die Reise in I ), which he completed in Berlin in 1982 . Brynntrup has lived in Berlin ever since. Until the end of the 80s he worked almost exclusively with Super-8 . There were multiple projections, film performances and mostly short films, which were widely used during the boom of the Super 8 format. The best-known film of this period is Jesus - The Film , a two-hour Super 8 monumental film to which over twenty Super 8 filmmakers and groups contributed an episode from the New Testament (1986). The film has been described as "the largest collective film in German film history" and "the most important contribution from Germany to the long series of Bible adaptations".

At the end of the 1980s, The Ivory Elephant was created , a cycle of eight dances of death in which various performance artists act in one episode with a skull. The cycle ended in 1993 with the 16 mm film Suddenly and Unexpectedly - a Déjà revue . The cycle of dances of death and other early films were made under the impact of the AIDS crisis; in the 90s Brynntrup devoted himself increasingly to the subject of homosexuality. Films like Aide Mémoire and Loverfilm have been presented at gay and lesbian film festivals as well as short film and experimental film festivals around the world and have won numerous awards (e.g. the special prize of the jury of German film critics, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 1996, or the Best Experimental Work at the Images Festival Toronto 1998).

From the mid-1990s, Brynntrup developed several projects for CD-ROM and other interactive media. The first film for the Internet is "KEIN FILM | NO FILM" (1999), which exists in two versions. "One film - two originals: the Internet version 'in online quality' (www.brynntrup.de/nofilm) and the 35mm version: soon in your festival cinema!" The TABU2000 project (1994) is considered a forerunner of the blogs . "For artists like Michael Brynntrup, only the Internet guarantees independence from the so-called art business such as museums, galleries, festivals. He exhibits his self on the platform he has created. The heart of the net composition, a diary, is hidden behind the title" Tabu ". [...] For the price of 160 euros there is a real paper page from the artist's life, framed and signed, which is sent to the buyer, who also receives a password, a key, so to speak, with which the owner of this intimate document can access to all other diary pages that are actually sold and unreally available for reading online. "

Brynntrup's works deliberately evade the art market when they, such as B. TABU2000.NET , ironically commenting on and counteracting the art operating system by establishing direct contact between artist and audience without going through galleries. Many of his works convey explicitly autobiographical, almost private content, whereby the audience becomes a confidante and collaborator (e.g. in Loverfilm - an uncontrolled release of information ). Often the audience is addressed directly from the screen: "Dear audience. You are now seeing ..." (for example in The Statics of the Eselsbrücken ). In many works, the cinema room and the reactions of the audience in the room are discussed (e.g. in ATTENTION - the attention ). This aspect is reinforced in his walk-in video installations. For more than a decade (since 2001) Brynntrup made annual trips to Asia, where he worked on the group of works 'Yellow Fever'. The result was numerous video installations and photographs that were summarized and exhibited in the space staging of the same name (GELBFIEBER [Incubation]) 2011/12.

Copies of his films appear in numbered but unlimited editions. Few of his actual film video work is available online. Most of his net art projects are posted on his website, albeit very hidden in the labyrinthine construction of the website, which he describes as his own artistic work ("This is where the Internet ends").

Over 15 of his films have premiered at the Berlinale since 1983 in various sections (Panorama, Forum des Junge Films, Forum Expanded). The Museum of Modern Art New York dedicated several film exhibitions to him (1987, 1992 and 1999). Numerous experimental and short film festivals showed retrospectives of his work (e.g. the International Short Film Festival Hamburg , 1988 and the Tampere International Short Film Festival , 2004).

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 2012 GELBFIEBER (incubation), exhibition in the university gallery of the HBK Braunschweig
  • 2011 KLEX - Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival, Werkschau, Kuala Lumpur
  • 2011 Internationales Filmfest Braunschweig , Werkschau, Braunschweig
  • 2011 GELBFIEBER, exhibition at Galerie M, Berlin
  • 2007 EXiS - Experimental Film and Video Festival, Werkschau, Seoul
  • 2006 HOTEL EUROPA LTD., KOFIC Namyangju Studios, Korea
  • 2005 Paris Cinéma Festival, “Focus on Director” retrospective, Paris
  • 2004 Tampere International Short Film Festival , “Up Close And Personal” retrospective, Tampere
  • 2003/04 KINOUT / STILLING, Riksutstillinger 21 Kunstvereine, Norway
  • 2003 São Paulo Int'l Short Film Festival, retrospective, São Paulo
  • 2002 ATTENTION, “Red Foyer” in the Arsenal cinema , Berlin
  • 1999 THE INTERNET ENDS HERE, internet, Berlin
  • 1996 IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION, Stuttgart Film Winter, exhibition in the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart
  • 1992 "LIVING PICTURES - still lives", retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1991 "Gastreise Nederland", tour through 10 cities in the Netherlands
  • 1988 WHAT A PRIZE LOOKS LIKE, International Short Film Festival Hamburg , Werkschau, Hamburg
  • 1987 “Cineprobe”, retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art , New York
  • 1986 "MISSION TOUR", Jesus film tour through 40 cities in Germany
  • 1985 MANY ANIMALS EAT THEIR AFTERBIRTH, Interfilm 3, Eiszeit Berlin cinema

Filmography (selection)

  • 1982: September, anger, a trip
  • 1983: The Rhine - a German fairy tale
  • 1983: Death Stripes - a German film
  • 1983–85: This is what a pinch looks like
  • 1984: Handfest - voluntary self-regulation
  • 1986: Veronika (vera ikon)
  • 1986: Testamento Memori
  • 1986: Jesus - The Movie
  • 1991: Love, jealousy and revenge (with BeV StroganoV )
  • 1986–89: At least finish the meat
  • 1987: Hell simulation - based on Plato's allegory of the cave
  • 1989: Narcissus and Echo (with Tima the Divine , Helge Musial )
  • 1990: The statics of the donkey bridges
  • 1989-93: Homo Erectus
  • 1993: All you can eat
  • 1993: Suddenly and unexpectedly - a déjà revue (with Mara Mattuschka , Udo Kier , Ichgola Androgyn )
  • 1995: Aide Mémoire - a gay memory protocol (with Jürgen Baldiga )
  • 1996: Lover film - an uncontrolled release of information
  • 1998: Tabu V (which one cannot speak of)
  • 1999: NY 'NY' n why not (with Kaspar Kamäleon )
  • 2000: Netc.Etera - the film about the film
  • 2000: no film

Awards and scholarships (selection)

  • 2012 Funding for film heritage from the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)
  • 2004 Grand Jury Prize for Best New Media Work, eKsperim [E] nto Festival, Manila
  • 2002 working grant from the Kulturfonds Foundation
  • 2002 New Voices Competition Winner, Digifest - interactive digital media festival Toronto
  • 1999 Special Teddy Award (ex aequo), Berlin International Film Festival
  • 1998 Best Experimental Work. Images Festival, Toronto
  • 1998 New York Film Academy Award, Berlin International Film Festival
  • 1997 Lower Saxony sponsorship award for film
  • 1993 Working grant from the Art Fund Foundation
  • 1991 Prize of the German Film Critics for the short film, Oberhausen Short Film Festival
  • 1990 German Film Critics' Prize for experimental film, EMAF , Osnabrück
  • 1987 Best production, Caracas International Super 8 Festival

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maximilian Le Cain: Being Michael Brynntrup . Website senses of cinema. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ Randall Halle: Jesus - the project. In: Jesus - Der Film - Das Buch , Vorwerk8, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-940384-58-4 , p. 287.
  3. ↑ Mike Hoolboom: The Death Dances of Michael Brynntrup . Millennium Film Journal website.
  4. ↑ DE: BUG Magazin , No. 37, July 2000.
  5. ^ Claudia Friedrich: Art without a body - Die mediale Avantgarde , WDR 5 'Scala', radio broadcast from August 28, 2006
  6. ↑ Alice Kuzniar: Michael Brynntrup's Cinematic Antidote to Yellow Fever , In: GELBFIEBER , catalog, HBK Braunschweig, 2012, ISBN 978-3-88895-079-7 , p. 9ff.
  7. ↑ shortfilm.com ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. DVDs at the short film agency Hamburg @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / shop.shortfilm.com
  8. ↑ Natalie Gravenor: Experimentainment: The Films of Michael Brynntrup Website realeyz.tv. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  9. ↑ Helmut Merschmann: The artist is silent and writes , In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 2, 1999
personal data
SURNAME Brynntrup, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brintrup, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster