kristina inciuraite: video screening at kunstlerhaus buchsen

[Anna Balint]

"buchsenhausen.labor" <labor at buchsenhausen.at>

To:
syndicate-request at anart.no

kristina inciuraite
/badehaus - bathhouse/

video screening
november 22, 2003, 19h
kunstlerhaus buchsenhausen,
weiherburggasse 13, 6020 innsbruck, austria

in her videos kristina inciuraite (*1974, lives and works in vilnius,
lithuania) focuses on features of female identity and the
socio-psychological circumstances that have made influence on her identity.

"the contemporary woman is widely presented in society as 'an object of
desire'. i criticize the existing scopophilic stereotype. i present a
woman like an invisible, but very active participator in a concrete
situation. we can't see, but we can hear her. my videos feature quite
static, minimal or even frozen images, however the female voice reveals
dynamic stories and breaks frozen images. she talks about daily life,
hidden and unrealized dreams or nostalgic memories. thus i don't
eliminate female identity, on the contrary - i accentuate it through
verbal representation.
the representation of women is focused on the historic connotations that
are more or less decadent in today's society. in the film, created and
presented in 'buchsenhausen.labor' i continue with woman's discourses
that are revealed through a historic perspective.

/badehaus - bathhouse/, 2003
the film was inspired by the movie 'ecstasy' (1933) starring the
austrian actress hedwig eva maria kiesler who later became famous in
hollywood as hedy lamarr. in this movie a young twenty-year old actress
performed naked in a swimming scene that lasted 10 minutes and that
shocked european society as well as her husband, austrian industrialist
fritz mandl, who unsuccessfully tried to purchase all existing copies of
ecstasy.
trying to recreate the scandalous atmosphere of this movie produced at
the beginning of 20th century, i have chosen an impressive and still
operating bathhouse, opened in 1927 in innsbruck, located in salurner
street. at that time this bathhouse was the most modern and most
beautiful in austria. i am shooting empty premises of the bathhouse,
interviewing female students at the 'schauspielforum tirol' (school of
actors) who are of the same age as hedwig eva maria kiesler when she
acted the naked scene. what do future actresses think of nudity? what is
the correlation between erotic and shame? could they perform naked in a
pool-swimming scene? could anyone forbid them to act in such a role?
although a lot is told of body and eroticism in this film, the young
narrator is not visible as in my earlier films. she can only be
imagined. most probably imagination begets eroticism and passion rather
than the naked reality.

reflections of bodily reality and eroticism that melted into the
proportions of venus have become classic in the art history, however
these reflections assume different social and psychological tinge in
different societies. the film gives a chance to look back into the past
so we can reassert modern values, relations of eroticism and morality."
kristina inciuraite, november 2003

kristina inciuraite is resident artist at kunstlerhaus buchsenhausen in
october and november 2003.

with best wishes,
andrei siclodi
buchsenhausen.labor

--
büchsenhausen.labor
pfurtscheller.praxmarer.schletterer.siclodi
weiherburggasse 13 6020 innsbruck, austria
phone +43 512 278627-10, fax -11
labor at buchsenhausen.at http://buchsenhausen.at