Kategorie: Video

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ELÉG

– a hungarian rhapsody

HDV (transfered to Blu-ray), 8’17“, colour, stereo, 2012

The Budapest bathing culture is a rich cultural heritage. But while inside, there’s mainly tourists swimming, dissonant sounds from outside seem to disturb the flow of images …

On observing people’s bathing in different baths of the hungarian capital, a speech from the off is heard: Balázs Nagy Navarro talks on occasion of a hunger strike agains media manipulation in public media in december 2011.

The rhapsody as a poetic composition refers to the „good old times“ that seem to be preserved in the baths of Budapest. Many residents can’t afford regular visits of the Széchenyi or Gellért bath while Lukács is mainly frequented for curatorial reasons.
The recordings were made in 2009 and 2010 at different seasons. The idyllic image of the baths doesn’t seem to be more distorted by the modernization to wellness temples but by the changed political situation in the country.
Not only since the controverse media laws of Orbán’s government there’s international worries about the future of democratic freedom in the country.
Navarro and others protested against a singular case of manipulated reporting as well as the media policy of the rightwing Fidesz-government in general.
As a consequence of this protest Navarro, who was previously employed by the channel that he protested against, has been suspended from his work.
In his speech as well as in the sentimental goodbye-song at the end of the video the word „ELÉG“ is central: it is ENOUGH.

NOTES ON THE PRODUCTION:
The footage was shot in companionship with photographer Julia Baier (juliabaier.de) who’s focussed on public bathing culture. The video was finalized in 2012 in exchange with the hungarian activists Gabriella Csoszó (photographer) and Lídia Nádori (translator and musician).

Recorded at these baths of Budapest:
Széchenyi, Gellért, Lukács, Palatinus, Komjádi, 2009 – 2010

speech: Balázs Nagy Navarro
sound recording: Gabriella Csoszó (gabriellacsoszo.com)
translation: Éva Zádor (hungarian to german), Fabian Baier (german to english)

music:
„Reset“ by Barbara Morgenstern („Nichts muss“, Monika; barbaramorgenstern.de)
„Elmondanám“ by HANEM (hanemzenekar.com)

Thank you:
Balázs Nagy Navarro, Lídia Nádori, Gabriella Csoszó,
Julia Baier, Éva Karádi, Éva Zádor, Astrid Nippoldt, Fabian Baier,
the public baths of Budapest who gave permission for the shooting

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Dead man (acting) in a river

Installation, 2013
1 Videoprojektion (Loop), 5-Kanal-Audio, Aufblasskulpturen, Gebla?se, Textilen, Pappe, Spots, Ventilator, Bewegungsmelder
In einer dschungelhaften Kulisse aus synthetischen Materialien liegt ein nackter Mann wie tot in einem Fluss. Wenn Besucher sich ihm na?hern, blasen sich Pflanzenskulpturen in der Kammer auf.

( Kunstkammer Schlieren im Rahmen SAME(difference)_sculpture in relation
kuratiert von/curated by: Tanja Trampe, Anne Koskiluoma, John Canciani, Nkule Mabaso)

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Feldaufnahme (field recording)

 

Agriculture in Europe has changed a lot within the last decades and years. Like with other plants, the harvest of corn is done with big machines. A girl with a microphone gets lost in the cornfield. A farmer looks at his plants. They are all in a cornfield, the parallel montage evokes some dramatical stories, but the film is mainly about observing the harvest and the change of the landscape.

Dialogues:
(Elderly farmer from the off in Low-german)
This belongs to the farm of
Borkmann and is rented out.
There is also no follower
on that farm.
The main house is rented,
some families live there.
At last everything is changing
in the farming business …

The harvest has been accompagnied with a camera and besides the big machines, I started to film the camera assistant who enjoyed listening to the sound of a cornfield for the first time. If you have ever been in a cornfield you can imagine that it’s not always easy to find your way out – it’s like a djungle! However, the sound of the big harvesting machines cannot be overheard, unless you’re completely into something else…

A motivation for making the video was to document the big change of the landscape: while from midsummer on, you cannot see very far anymore due to the highth of the corn, after the harvest you suddenly can look very far. Suddenly, you see farms and a horizon where there used to be a „green hell“ like some people say. Allthough corn as a plant has only been cultivated since 50 years in the region Münsterland (close to the dutch border), it nowadays covers about 50% of the surface of the region. This is due to the growth of animal production: stables with hundreds of cows or even thousands of pigs need a lot of food! As still new stables for even more animals are being built, it is harder to get land for growing food for a farmer. And renting land has become more and more expensive of course. As a consequence, farmers need to expand or quit farming. Invest or stop. The number of farmers decreased a lot wihtin the past decades for different reasons. But the growing concurrence within an industrialized agriculture makes the farmers become ‚agro managers‘.

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Paramadame

(D; Videoloop for upright monitor 2’51′, col, stereo, 2011)

A woman in a yellow dress with an opulent hat and a black veil is standing in front of a pink background and sings something in french. But her words are hardly comprehensible because she’s singing back and forth, her movements have been sampled. By this she’s getting something mechanical and becoming a singing sculpture with rhythm. Transformative loops turn the parts of words and syllables into new variations of melodic sequences and in between one could maybe decrypt her message: „Nous sommes dans une situation difficile.“- „We’re in a difficult situation.“
In the original movie, the woman is asking for credit from a money lender. In it’s remixed version the chanson is turned into techno.
Like in an earlier work (Les Paraparapluies, 2009) the footage is taken from the movie ‚Les Parapluies de Cherbourg‘ (F/D 1964) by Jacques Demy, that fascinates me in a special way.
Even more remixes can come out of this fascination. The reasons are founded in the unique decor with its sweet esthetics and the brilliant combination of a tragic lovestory with a socially critical background. Last but not least it’s the form of a the musical that makes it intriguing to resample the emotional and expressive, singing faces.Footage: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (F/D‚ 1964)
director: Jacques Demy, music: Michel Legrand-
(deutsch)
PARAMADAME(D; Videoloop für hochformatigen Monitor 2’51′, Farbe, stereo, 2011)Eine Frau im gelben Kleid, mit opulentem Hut und schwarzem Schleier steht vor einem rosa Hintergrund und singt etwas auf Französich. Doch ihre Worte sind nur sehr schwer verständlich, denn sie singt vor- und rückwärts, ihre Bewegungen sind gesampelt. Dadurch erhält sie etwas Maschinelles und wird zur rhythmisierten Singskulptur. Aus Satzteilen und Silben entstehen durch die transformativen Loops immer neue Variationen von melodischen Folgen und zwischendrin kann man unter Umständen einen Teil Ihrer Botschaft entschlüsseln: „Nous sommes dans une situation difficile.“- „Wir sind in einer schwierigen Situation“. Im originalen Film bittet die Frau beim Pfandleiher um Kredit. In seiner ge-remixten Version wird das Musical vom Chanson- zum Techno-Ohrwurm.Wie bereits bei einer früheren Arbeit (Les Paraparapluies, 2009) entstammmt das Ausgangsmaterial dem Film ‚Les Parapluies de Cherbourg‘ (F/D 1964) von Jacques Demy, der mich in besonderer Weise fasziniert und mit dem noch weitere Remixe entstehen können. Gründe dafür liegen in dem einzigartigen Dekor und seiner süsslichen Ästhetik sowie der genialen Verbindung einer tragischen Liebesgeschichte mit sozialkritischem Hintergrund. Besonders aber reizt mich die Form des Musicals, die es erlaubt, die emotionalen und expressiven singenden Gesichter zu resampeln.Footage: Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg (OT: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg; F/D‚ 1964)
Regie: Jacques Demy, Musik: Michel Legrand