A film called wood

KünstlerInnengespräch mit Elke Krystufek
Im Rahmen der Vorlesung von Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein
Morphologie des Körpers und Raums
Datum | 24.04.2008 13.30 h
Ort | Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Schillerplatz 3, A - 1010 Wien, Raum M 20

In the sequel to Dr. Love on Easter Island, A Film Called Wood  from 2007, Virginia Woolf appears together with Bas Jan Ader, brought together by Krystufek in some kind of afterlife, accompanied by angels. Their conversations are strangely monological, associatively incoherent, moving – by the intervention of the angels – from one subject to another, without any evident reason. Every character is (over-) clearly identified by having her name written on her forehead, like being forced by some absurdly logical urge to be categorized in a museum-like manner. The name of the object is inscribed on the object itself. On the other hand the characters are not constant or stable, but changing actors are dividing the roles into several persons. In addition, the plot is played out in several locations, only connected by being brought together in the film: Berlin, Amsterdam, Stavanger, and Vienna. The characters are dressed in costumes designed by Krystufek – not real costumes, but then again, not real clothing: Katharsis Couture. Everything is in-between different positions, changeable, from one place to another, neither nor. Like the angels themselves, messengers between Heaven and Earth, here frugally equipped wearing theatre wings and plushy halos, strangers to earth, strangers to heaven. It is not really a case of acting, but rather lines expressed through borrowed bodies, partly remaining themselves, but also partly beside themselves, alienated. In the same way, the lines that are uttered are partly original, partly borrowed, and everywhere marbled with song titles and artist’s names, subtly rubbing the film with a dense-woven fabric of associations, with threads deeply inside both the world of art as well as popular culture.

Excerpt from Text “Leeway” by Rune Gade for the catalogue A Film called Wood woof Woolve Vulvahoodsuperwoovertrooper published at the occasion of the exhibition of Elke Krystufek at Transit Art Space, April 11th to June 15th in Stavanger, Norway