Jürgen Baldiga - Fotografien
Within only 8 years, from 1995 until his death in
1993, Jürgen Baldiga created an absolutely convincing
and subjective mirror-image of his personal world,
which very impressively documents a time that has only
recently passed. The photographer, born in Essen,
Germany in 1959, received public attention during his
lifetime with his publications: Bambule (1986),
Jünglinge (1987) Tunten Queens Tanten (1992) even
though he was absolutely independent from the gallery
system. Only after his death was his work shown in
larger exhibitions in his town of choice: Berlin (a.o.
Amsterdam, Paris, Stuttgart). Because of his dominant
personality, his publicity-arousing appearance of
openly being gay and HIV-positive after the outbreak
of AIDS - his black and white imagery world often was
labeled with these same clichés. Either being praised
for portraiture full of pride showing the outcasts of
society or criticized as pure provocateur, Baldiga was
perceived in different contexts: either as AIDS
photographer, social critic, gay artist or enfant
terrible. The exhibition in the Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Berlin gives a broad and general overview of his
complete works and shows the very quality of his
photography that is only poorly characterized with the
redundancy of the usual clichés. Baldiga's absorbing
art of portraying the absolutely unique erotic and
staged photos are not only showing a personal
understanding, but have to be taken seriously as an
artistic concept. The exhibition in the Kunstforum,
Köln is set smaller due to the lack of space, but will
in spite prove that Jürgen Baldiga is a "classic" in
the art of photography. The interpreted provocation of
Baldiga's photos is authentic, and the authenticity
can be seen through his stylization. The "objects" of
Baldiga's photos are the coincidences of his life -
especially all the people who he watched: those who
attracted him and those who approached him. With a
changing intensity - they look into his camera and
alike face the viewer. The radical curiosity of this
photographer is directed to the thrilling self-staging
of the models in front of his camera as well as
between the physical availability and the
self-confidence of the subjects. Exemplary for his
personal take on photography are the "dirty pictures."
Their very physical expression is not directed by the
photographer: they derive sometimes from the intimacy
between lovers, as one of them gets hold of a camera
in bed, or they document the way in which the models
present themselves. The photographic image is the
result of a dialogue between equals that allows irony
as a means of expression as well. This is valid for
all the ones, in their portraits, who like Baldiga -
were HIV positive or lived after the outbreak of AIDS.
The basis of the portraits is a "partner in crime"
based on mutual understanding, that has nothing to do
with any intention of a program alà "AIDS Has A Face".
The protagonists, for example Ikarus, who exposes
himself with his Karposis and the number of his
helper's t-cells, have a personal message and Baldiga
creates the canvas for that. The exhibition shows
thematic groups of his work that refer to his
publications (Bambule, Jünglinge, Tunten); another
orientation are his sujés-like portraits,
self-portraits and scenic adaptations of paintings by
Caravaggio. Apart from being an approach to a summary
of the body of work that he left, the second part of
the exhibition serves as a reconstruction of the very
unique forms of presentation which Baldiga himself
developed - among others the styling of portraits into
personal "icons."
Edition Objektiv published a catalogue (192 pages, ca
210 b/wh photos) with texts written by Chou-Chou de
Briquette, Michael Bryntrup, Ines de Nil, Aron
Neubert, Thomas Michalak, Ursli Pfister, Melitta
Poppe, Napoleon Seyfarth, Ingo Taubhorn, Ruedi Weber,
the additional journal going along with the catalogue
includes essays and texts written by Ulmann-Matthias
Hakert, Tom Kuppinger and Frank Wagner.
Translation: Sibyll Kalff
"Fotographien" by Jürgen Baldiga ISBN 3-9804363-1-4
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Stan Lafleur - Neue Heimat
New lyrics from Stan Lafleur who lives in
Cologne/Germany. 80 pages. In german.
ISBN 3-937846-01-8
Sibyll Kalff wrote a short english summary, thank you!
Stan Lafleur - Neue Heimat
"Neue Heimat" for the first time allows a
representative general overview over Stand Lafleurs
lyrical oevre from the last years after a series of
smaller editions and publications. Lafleur prefers to
deal with the outskirts of the poetical map, topics
like fight-dogs or football, but as well the
reanimation of a de-idyllised poetry about the
Rheinland stand for a very individual poetic approach,
concious of the poetic lineage, at the same time being
aware of pop- and boulevard-culture, the very "NOW",
that it criticizes and wrangles with and sometimes as
well celebrates. Being trashy and brutal in moments,
but never without irony, his poetry stands for a
social-realistic awareness in its uttermost sense,
giving an insight into the new german slums.
"Makes the love of the poet fail in a rolemodel style
dealing with a profan greasy Döner." "(...) The ones
who want to get comfy with the "Rheinländer poetry"
will end up in poison ivory: the country of dwarfes in
the frontyard and fight-dogs, the covered up guilt and
tv neurosises is exactly not idyllic here." (Kölner
Stadt-Anzeiger)
Stan Lafleur was born in 1968 in Karlsruhe, Germany
and lives and works in cologne at the moment. Author
and Spoken Word performer. Collaborations with various
musicians (MC, LP, CD and radioplays). Various
solotitles, the latest: "laszt uns alle voll so in die
gegend gucken", edition roadhouse, Hannover 2003
Published by KRASH Neue Edition, Stahl-Verlag, Köln,
2004 80 pages, ca. 11x18cm ISBN 3-937846-01-8
Stan in his own words: for the first time, this 80
page book contains a representative collection of my
poems from the last years, among them many, that are
only known from my performances (that never or hardly
ever got printed in magazines or anthologies) but as
well brandnew material. In six chapters, the fields of
topics vary from punky-trashy studies of society,
texts about football and fight-dogs, not very idyllic
poems about the Rhein(land) and lyrical montages based
on diaries-excerpts by the Cologne poet Rolf
Brinkmann, (who died some decade ago).
Stan Lafleur
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Ulrich Bogislav - Wo ich bin ist hinten
a german book. great short stories! but not translated
...
not yet translated into german, but Sibyll Kalff wrote
a short summary:
(slight touch of freestyle...)
Why do men grow cotelettes?
What the role of the sports in the fight between the
sexes?
In Germany, you pass exactly three town on your way,
which are Uffeln-Salz-Badfurt, St. Umbeln with its
colonies of mushroom-breeding and Lippenbär.
Travellers with real endurance pass as well the
Pezzelentic Hights, where Father Rhine takes a piss
into his own bed, and you can watch from the vineyards
all that beerbellies, that love camping as their
passtime. There is little and big guesthouses along
the highways. You dine krautpotatoes with rockin' roll
saussages and for 1 DM (now euro) you get tape salad
as a side dish, in case you go for that. Not everyone
does. Many people hang out there with delight, carry
long hair and and rock out in the
"Autobahnraststätten". But thats exactly how the whole
rockin' roll sound originated, which causes endless
noise on the highways and provoces the danger of drug
(traffic). There is duells between pothead-drivers and
beerhead drivers, about who-s the one being more
stoned. They all blink with their additional
spotlights, that they took along and fake worlds and
create illusions. The Germans are loose! Whether in
the outdoor public pools, on the highways, at the
"arbeitsamt" or doing outdoor construction work -
pressed tightly between the discription of his
birthdayparty and the utterly difficult try to leave
his bed after a night of excessive drinking - Ulrich
Bogislav doubtlessly deals very intense with his
fellow inhibitants of germany in this book of stories.
In the first place, he is very interrested in the
reunited german language culture in the year 2002:
rough worker's slang, the language of the media and
throw-away language, "Aldi- and Kaufhof"german (a
supermarket and mall chain). Bogislav specially
demonstrates the meandering borders between dadaistic
and realistic speech in his dialogues.
The man is way ahead of the woman in his sexuality
with his seven-miles per hours boots. He is the
closest to himself. He causes masses of peoples to
assemble around him and then pushes his way though the
frontline to see himself better.
He pushes 5 DM down the schlitz - and then takes a
deep long intense stare. For a very long time. Very
intense. He knows that his sexuality is of an
enourmous hight and without him somebody else -d be
standing there. That-s something he can-t miss. Then
comes the comparison, lengh times hight times pi times
thumbs, erected and drawn and in front of the mirror
and Ö and then he is done comparing, he has the
fastest, that-s for sure.
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Etienne Charry - aube radieuse serpents en flammes
1 album 16 videos
the young parisienne producer of musicvideos, charles
petit, invited 16, mostly french directors to produce
each one video for one track of the album “Aube
Radieuse Serpents en flammes” by Etienne Charry.
Etienne Charry became famous for being head of the
band “Oui Oui”, by the way the band, Michel Gondry
shot his first musicvideo ever for, while being their
drummer, too.
visualizing a music, that you could maybe d as french
underground pop, the „Aube Radieuse Serpents en
flammes“videos were produced in various styles and
genres from photo-collages, sur roadmovie, little
stories, 3D animation or the esthetics of the twenties
silent movies. neither appears Etienne Charry as the
singer, nor does one style or corporate identity is
aimed at. Charry's songs are playfull little
dittie-diamonds and represent a french popculture,
being completely unkown in other parts of the world.
his music is used as a creative playground for the
participating filmmakers, allways with surprising
results: big entertainment inspite of the smallest
budgets. in germany where the production of
independent musicvideos becomes more and more
difficult, due to the lack of places/tv slots to at
all show them, this creative overflow seems to be
revolutionairy. the spirit of the young, happily going
for the experimental style france is manifesting
itself here.
the presentation of the videos is supplemented with
contributions, that deal with the "making off" the
single productions. a feature, specially produced for
"channel+" about the project, including interviews
with Charles Petit and Etienne Charry, portraits of
the directors and the material used for the
production, top this phantastic round dance of visual
experimentals off.
translation: Sibyll Kalff
http://www.gemischtwaren.com/product_info.php/cPath/48_89/products_id/329
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Graw Böckler - HOW TO
Videos
how to help a person in a life threatening condition?
can you cook a sauce bernaise nacked? which visual
post-production-effects do exist? how to legalize
marihuana and abolish animal transports? what do
japanese words mean in english? can you trust
yourself? this and other questions are the creative
points of origin in "how to" - a dvd project by the
photo-arstists and filmmakers Graw Böckler. the 13
musicvideos with sound or being silent movies transfer
useful and emotional knowledge. the actresses, Tujiko
Noriko, Lena Böhm, Niobe, Bettina Latak und Katrin
Hallenberger outclass themselves in instinctiveness on
the documentary settings. most of the melancholic
songs are written and performed ba the japanese singer
Tujiko Noriko. the other songs are by Niobe, Donna
Regina, Nova Huta und Xiu Xiu. “how to” is the second
dvd by Graw Böckler after “super 8 years” in 2003.
the videos
"first aid" - once learned and directly forgotten. you
should watch the video „how to practice first aid“
more then once! the accompanying track "Passer by" by
Donna Regina tells the story of an incidental meeting,
that the video interprets as the encounter with a
needy character.
In „how to play you record" - Noriko is testing how
the audience reacts to her new record. she is visiting
strangers and playes them her slowest and longest
piece, "Robot Hero“.
„how to tie a bowline knot“ - shows how to do the
"Palsteg", the most important tie-sling for the every
day, next to the "Kreuzknoten".
In „how to stop“ - Lena Böhm smokes the "cigarette
after" and explains, why it is her last one. she is
"show-cooking" an asparagus recipe during the
monologue - naked with steaming cook pots.
„how to translate“ - is the literal translation of
japanese lyrics into english. and as well the nightly
recordings of Tujiko Noriko are mirrored into another
reality.
an empty pool. a group of kids. the teacher explains
that they shall jump "feet first" into the bassin. a
girl spreads her arms and jumps completely relaxed and
full of trust a belly-flop on to the water surface.
Tujiko Noriko wanted to experience this moment as
well, documented in „how to trust“.
therory and praxis: the singer niobe talks about
processes and inspiration during the creation of music
in „how to make music“. the incomprehensible becomes
comprehensible during a live performance.
In „how to legalize“ - two women convince her
surrounding environment to legalize marihuana and to
become vegetarians. the dialogs are visualized by the
means of subtle trick techniques in the background of
the two women speaking. the film stays a silent movie,
which makes the visual ardour even more comfortable to
watch.
In „how to find a frame“ - endless time is taken to
find the perfect display detail.
the opposition of "believe" and "knowledge" is
transcendet in „how to believe in jesus“ in a sinister
way. visual effects and presets are declined by the
means of a sequence with the statue of christ in Rio
De Janeiro. "how to believe in jesus" won the second
price - best german musicvideo - at the MUVI Award
2004, Internationale Kurzfilmtage (days of the
shortfilm) Oberhausen.
„Support our troops" - a song by Xiu Xiu about
soldiers, who do not deserve any support of ours, as
they turn into murderers during war, even if it is
"only" carnival soldiers.
„how to relax“ - follows female soccer fans around,
who relax by crusing town during the european soccer
championships in portugal. you have to say goodbue:
„how to say goodbye“ is an analysis of movements made
during welcome and goodbye rituals, that directly
merges into the filmcredits. the "making of" with
wonderfull photos, taken during the filmprodution is
accompanied by the portugese version of „Heb Dir deine
Tränen für jemand anders auf“ ("save your tears for
someone else).
© translation: Sibyll Kalff
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Ulrich Bogislav - AugenMan rettet die Welt gegen
Gefahr
A science fiction radio play
Sorry, only in german available ...
Ulrich Bogislav - EyeMan saves the World against
Danger a SF-radioplay
a phantastic, professionally produced radioplay! it
never had airplay, but editors write about it:
Hessischer Rundfunk:
"thank you very much for sending in your cd EyeMan
saves the World against Danger, which i was very
interested in listening to and found it very amusing!"
" .... the radioplay is based on the very funny basic
idee, that the story takes place in the kitchen and
the character of AufschnittMan (ColdcutMan) only
agitates on a plate, understandable only, when it gets
clear that AufschnittMan was named SchmierkäseMan
(Grease CheeseMan) before, and AufschnittMan refers to
the german aufschneiden - cold cuttings and not to the
other translation - to brag. the whole radio play is
completely cramped with numberless technical
inventions like transmittors, dimensionprisms etc
meant as a tribute to the whole genre. another
delay-tactics of the author is leading to an
unwillingly slapstickesque humour, for example: to
reach space-city, where the fighters guess
AufschnittMan to be, they need a transmittter, but it
has unopenable doors. even the gwendolin sword utterly
fails, while it-s being completely unkown to any
listers, what it should be good for anyway! then
suddenly and unexpected the doors opens and the story
rolls on without any complications. that-s all more
then questionable"
"it-s absolutely great" the author
Translation: Sibyll Kalff
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le pop - en duo
the third le pop cd
quoted from the presstext: as the name suggests,
everything about LE POP EN DUO is about the duet,
about the renaissance of the duet as a songformat
performed by the artists of the Nouvelle Scène
Française. the idea for that motto derived from
noticing, how many great duets are published right
now. as on the first two samplers you find the
artists: PASCAL PARISOT, BENJAMIN BIOLAY, DOMINIQUE A,
FRANÇOISE BREUT, -M-, KATERINE und MICKEY 3D. and we
as well introduce the most important new artists:
ALEXIS HK, JEANNE CHERHAL und SÉBASTIEN MARTEL
furthermore for the first time the publication of two
previously unreleased tracks, the absolutely grandios
"Something Stupid" adaptation by JEANNE CHERHAL &
ALBIN DE LA SIMONE (in french "Ces mots stupides") and
as well the mega-cool kicked back styla cover of the
old Niagara-Hit "L'amour à la plage" by TOMA & API.
the most promising canadian newcomer STEFIE SHOCK has
his premiere in europe, and the fantastic "Histoire
D'Espions" by JÉRÔME MINIÈRE und KARINE VANASSE, too!!
thought the songformat defines the sampler, the result
of this new record easily keeps the high niveau of the
two previous ones. this is confirmed by all the
absolutely positiv feedback. some experts think it to
be the best LE POP ever!
sure nuff, we love to hear that........
NEW!!! the LE POP tees in the fashion department!!!
Translation: Sibyll Kalff
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Stephan Meier - Satumaa (fairyland) (VHS)
On the road with the
"Lasse Santakangas Ensemble"
hach, if i could only one time ever get
into this fairyland, then i would never
fly away from it like any bird.
but without wings it-s not
possible for me to fly,
i am a prisoner of this earth.
from: "Satumaa"
The tango "Satumaa" (fairyland), that Unto Mononen
composed and texted in 1955 developed over the years
into the secret national anthem of finnland. the wish,
to leave this dark and frosty country must be burned
deep into the souls of its inhabitants. in nearly
every jukebox - you will find the most famous version
of "Satumaa", that forest worker Reijo Taipale
recorded in 1962. but still today "Satumaa" can be
found in many repertoires of young punk and rock bands
(for example the band Kumikameli recorded it 1996)..
While The Lasse Santakangas Ensemble considered the
central-european tango after world war two only to
serve an escapistic sentimental exotic und to survived
if at all as a rhythmic pattern, tango in finnland
became it-s very own genre with very important social
and cultural functions. the tangos that got composed
after the war with their finnish texts became a
substitue language within the culture of quiet, to
communicate about difficult topics like love,
happyness, worries and desires.
It seems that the tango found a new home in finnland,
though you can hardly recognize its roots. no filigran
bandoneon, that "mourns and coughs and while setting
aggressive accents" but the weary five row
knob-accordeon cries and comforts. the is no syncopes.
all tangos are played in minor chords. and the dance
of the couples is far from any erotic or obscenity, no
"forever fight between man and woman making love" ,
but a melancholic with eachother, sharing the
knowledge that all are "prisoners of earth".
The finnish tango tells its stories about the lost
paradise, the worries of life, the loss and
disappointment and the dream that the suffering ends.
no "sad thought, that you can dance", but a sad life,
that has to be lived inspite.
No tourist will ever find it-s way to Somero, in the
southwest of finnland. it is located absolutely off
the beaten tracks, the highways and is a plain rural
village. but the main drag is not decorated with
beautifull woodhouses coated in red paint, its all
baracks and cemented flat buildings. they stand around
like dice randomly thrown and leave alot of space for
vast oily, muddy, watery lots. nevertheless this
little village embodies finnish music history, as the
finnish composer of tango Unto Mononen lived there,
second well known after Toivo Kärki. he composed and
texted "Satumaa" (the fairyland) in this very village.
and there did he shoot himself dead after alcoholic
excesses in the year 1968.
"Lasse Santakangas Ensemble" originates from Somero as
well. it consist of 5 musicians and a singeress, who
all work in other non artist-professions as well, if
they are not pensioneers. every summer they get on the
road and play in every village, on little festivals
and in the backrooms of bars and restaurants. their
repertoire is mainly finnish tango, and they are
specialized in the compositions of Unto Mononen. the
accordeonist Lasse Santakangas was born 1927 and had
his 60ies band anniversary in 2202. his daughter Kaija
sings and his grandson Markus plays the drums. the
three musicians of the Santakanga family are joined by
Aarne Tuomola playing guitars, Erkki Aalto on bass and
Teuvo Ihanus, born in 1932, playing the second
accordeon.
The film shows a very intimate portrait of the
musicians and has them tell their tales about their
lives, their music and last not least, talk about the
melancholia of the finnish tango. the tango is the
blues of the finnish people.
The Lasse Santakangas Ensemble
The Lasse Santakangas Ensemble plays tango from
Finland
Band:
Lasse Santakanga - accordion
Teuvo Ihanus - accordion
Kaja Santakangas - vocals
Aarne Tuomola - guitar
Erkki Alto - bass
Markus Santakangas - drums
A film from: Stepfan Meier
Kamera: Bernd Schuller
Cut: Marcel Belledin
Production: Körnerstrasse Film
PAL, Duration ca. 30 Min
Translation: Sibyll Kalff
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5-Seconds-Crushed-Ice-Maker
You don't need an ice grinder anymore. Just use our
fantastic Crushed-Ice-Maker, really easy!
The description (you find it on the package, too)
sounds a little bit complicated, but we tested it: It
functions phantastically and simple & the ice turns
out right and absolutely crushy!! The following
presstext is written by the originator, by the way, a
neighbour from köln-ehrenfeld. you find a link below,
leading to a page with more photos!
Untill yesterday you needed an ice-mill, a hammer or
the famous ice-axe to produce the treasured icy
substance for a coktail or longdrink.
But from today on, you-ll have crushed ice any given
time available in your fridge by simply using the
5-second crushed-ice-maker!!!
Brief description:
Everybody knows icecube bags
but, with the new 5-second crushed-ice-maker the water
directly freezes into nothing but crushed ice
particles!
For the rest of your life you will never have to use
any hammer, ice-axe or ice-mills with a soundscape of
a tractor again and inspite have cocktail-ice any
given time in the house!!!
* simply fill the bag of the 5-second
crushed-ice-maker with water
* wait, untill the water is frozen
* out of the deep freeze &
* twist the bag 2-3 times with your hands (& this
really only lasts five seconds!!!)
* sure enough!!! ready to use crushed ice is cascading
out of the C-I-M into the forthcoming
caipirinha-tumblers!
How does that work???
Hidden in the container of the 5-second
crushed-ice-maker are numerous burls. The water is
deepfreezing between this foils into little particles
of ice, and with the simply hand-twisting (in five
seconds) they are loosened and cascade into the
forthcoming tumblers. The C-I-M produces roughly half
a kilo !!! (500 g) of crushed ice for 4 - 5 delicious
colddrinks without any elaborate and time-consuming
activities.
The 5-second crushed-ice-maker is over and over
utilizable and serves as well to preserve the
remaining crushed ice for the next party!
© Translation: Sibyll Kalff
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