Film & Kunst: "Dieser Film ist ein Geschenk"

A film about the object artist Daniel Spoerri in the "Film & Art" series presented by Cinema Quadrat and Kunsthalle Mannheim:

THIS FILM IS A GIFT

AUT 2019. Dir.: Anja Salomonowitz. Documentary. 72 min. Rating: N/A

After his early career as a classical dancer, Daniel Spoerri (1930–2024) founded the Nouveaux Réalistes group in Paris in 1960 together with Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, and other artist friends, the group known as the Nouveaux Réalistes in Paris in 1960 and went on to become a leading figure in object art. He became famous for his “trap pictures,” in which he glued the traces of a meal—including plates, glasses, and food scraps—to the tabletop and hung them vertically on the wall. Daniel Spoerri also collected all kinds of everyday objects and arranged them in new contexts. Director Anja Salomonowitz explores Spoerri’s idea of existence as a constant cycle, touching on questions of Jewish identity in the process. “Actually, it’s a film about an idea of Daniel Spoerri’s: a film almost without Daniel Spoerri—in fact, he is mostly portrayed by a child—to say nothing less than that life somehow always goes on, even if one dies in the meantime.”

Introduction: Christiane Wichmann, Kunsthalle Mannheim