Jan 22, 6 pm
Florian Wüst
Mutual Vision: Industrie und Avantgarde im Film
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In the early 20th century, with its unprecedented mass production and division of labour, mechanization became an inevitable fact of modern life. Along with it, new art forms were sought to reflect on a contemporary reality increasingly marked by accelerated progress and mobility, and adhering to scientific reason, social hygiene, and the development of new technologies to master nature and the human body. These new technologies, above all in the fields of electronics and machinery, optical media and communication, architecture and design, greatly inspired early avant-garde cinema as well as the making of industrial films. But the relationship between avant-garde filmmakers, sound artists, engineers, and industrial clients reached much deeper than just sharing a common vision of a better and technically enhanced future: while renowned artists and filmmakers (like Hans Richter, Len Lye or Norman McLaren) were invited to produce advertisements and corporate films, companies and state agencies showed true interest in cinematic experimentation and abstract expression as a means to promote their products as modern, innovative, future oriented. … >>