Neuer Berliner Kunstverein presents the work of Hartmut Bitomsky for the first time in an art institution.

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k.

Hartmut Bitomsky
25 September – 7 November 2010

Opening:
Friday, September 24, 7 pm

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k.

www.nbk.org

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein presents the work of Hartmut Bitomsky for the first time in an art institution. Bitomsky is one of the most outstanding German filmmakers today, and enjoys an international reputation. He has made more than 40 films, some of the best known include the films of his Germany trilogy: Deutschlandbilder (Pictures of Germany, 1983), Reichsautobahn (1985), and Der VW Komplex (The VW Complex, 1988). He was awarded the Grimme-Preis for Reichsautobahn and for Der VW Komplex.

At Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Bitomsky has staged the large-scale, room-filling film-sound installation Shakkei: Geborgte Landschaft (Borrowed Landscape). Previously unseen film and sound material from his films Staub (Dust, 2007) and B-52 (2001) is recycled and elaborately montaged together respectively. He was inspired by the Japanese shakkei, which stands for the "borrowing" of a landscape. Japanese gardens are often planned so that a found "natural" landscape is connected with designed elements. In the act of behold, the natural and designed elements fuse. The procedure of recycling and returning material back to a context of use in the new economy of images is the starting point for the n.b.k. film landscape, for which Bitomsky rediscovers his own material and creates a new whole.

Bitomsky reflects on his film subjects as symptoms of their time, subjecting them to social and political inspection. In often elaborate montages, essayistic film compositions emerge that can be minimalist, poetic, or objective, and a further perspective is added by the soundtrack, composed by the director himself, and the off screen commentary. Bitomsky's more recent films look at our so-called "post-industrial" future, where film has a different future than it has until now: "The cinema in the past 100 years has faithfully accompanied the industrial age. And now we have to be prepared for the fact that a certain kind of filmmaking, a certain way of recording the gaze on the world, is coming to an end" (Hartmut Bitomsky).

Curated by Marius Babias

Book series "n.b.k. exhibitions" On the occasion of the exhibition, a publication will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, with texts and materials by Hartmut Bitomsky.

Program Sunday, October 3, 2010, starts from 3 pm
Film on Film. Hartmut Bitomsky
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, Berlin-Tiergarten

Films, lectures, discussions (in German language) with Hartmut Bitomsky (filmmaker, Berlin), Marie Luise Angerer (Prof. Cultural/Media Studies, KHM Köln, Berlin/Cologne), Helke Misselwitz (director, Prof. for Direction, HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg) and Stefanie Schulte-Strathaus (film curator Arsenal, Berlin).
In cooperation with Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Sunday, November 7, 2010, 8 pm
Film Night with Christian Petzold
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Chausseestraße 128/129, Berlin-Mitte
Films selected and commented by Christian Petzold (filmmaker, e.g. Jerichow [2008], Wolfsburg [2003], Die innere Sicherheit [2000], lives in Berlin)


n.b.k. Showroom
Gruppenbild 4: Ming Wong
September 28–November 5, 2010

n.b.k. Video-Forum
Video Of The Month 4: Reem Al-Ghazzi
September 28–November 5, 2010

Opening hours
Exhibition
Tuesday-Sunday, 12am–6pm
Thursday, 12am–8pm

Showroom/Video-Forum
Tuesday/Thursday, 2–8pm
Wednesday/Friday, 2–6pm

Contact
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k.
Chausseestraße 128/129
10115 Berlin, Germany
T +49 30 2807020, F +49 30 2807019
E nbk@nbk.org
www.nbk.org