Page 31 - Studio International - November December 1975

KURT KREN

The temptation in writing about Kurt Kren is to present Kubelka, the three films are Adebar (1957), Schwechater
him as some kind of father of European avant-garde film. (1958) and the exceptional, blank screen, alternating
His work is certainly held in very high regard by almost all black and white Arnulf Rainer (1960). For Kren they
the film-makers this side of the Atlantic involved in so- were 2/60-48 Köpfe aus dem Szondi-Test, 3/60-Bäume
called structuralist film. At forty-six years old (born in im Herbst (both 1960) and 4/61 -Mauern-Positiv-
Vienna on 20 September 1929), beginning his Negativ und Weg (1961). Perhaps Kren's first 16mm film
experiments with film on 8mm as early as 1953 and should be included as it certainly breaks significantly
completing his first 16mm film in 1957, he has at least a
ten-year start on those like Birgit and Wilhelm Hein,
Peter Gidal, Werner Nekes, Peter Weibel, Valie Export or
myself who otherwise have been the main generation
initiating the 'formal' direction outside the USA.
However, to see Kren in this way is somewhat
misleading. Though his historical role is of great
importance he should in no way be condemned to the
history books, as he continues to be a leading figure of the
avant-garde. Secondly, none of the innovators who
started work later, in the mid-sixties, was a follower of
Kren. Most, like myself, had already started in this
direction before encountering Kren's films. The lack of
information here about the American underground film
was matched by a similar lack of exchange within
Europe itself. I first saw a Kren film in 1967 or '68, during
one of the early presentations of the London Film co-op.
It was in a programme dominated by some very poor and
obscure films from the USA. (The first American works
to be distributed here came mostly from Robert Pike's
Creative Film Society catalogue, and my reaction was
very unfavourable to what I came to realize later were
films quite unrepresentative of the New American
Cinema). The Kren film, 10/65 Selbstverstümmelung, was
one of his less evidently formal works, but even so, I
recognized a close affinity in filmic concept with the work
I was doing. This was borne out by seeing some of his
other films soon after, particularly 15/67-TV which
remains for me his most influential film.
In many ways, in post-war Vienna, the art scene
revived as an independent force more quickly than it did in
most other European centres. It was also less dominated
by the powerful new movements originating in the
affluence of post-war America. Though the development
of the Austrian Direct Art and Material-aktion movements
of Brus, Muehl and Nitsch parallels the Happenings
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movement and has similar roots in Abstract
Expressionism, the Viennese development was an
independent growth from the already strong
expressionist tradition of Klimt, Schiele or Kokoschka.
Film experiment in Vienna also significantly preceded
any other similar development in Europe and was
likewise completely independent of the American
Underground cinema. Apart from Kren's early 8mm films,
which he does not consider as 'public' work, the first
important post-war experimental film from Austria was
Mosaik im Vertrauen, made jointly in 1955 by Ferry
Radax and Peter Kubelka. In 1957 Kubelka made Adebar,
Kren made 1/57 -Versuch mit syntetischem Ton and
Marc Adrian began work on Black Movie. Though
Kubelka collaborated with Radax on the one film, these
four Viennese film-makers were not a group ; they
worked separately and had no significant influence on
each other. Kren and Kubelka, whose respective films
represent the most radical innovation in film thought at
that time, demand some comparison. By 1961, both film-
makers had produced at least three films, which together
with contemporary work by Brakhage (particularly
Sirius Remembered, 1959) and a little later Warhol
(Sleep, 1963) brought about the biggest changes in
concepts of film form since the early experiments of Man
Ray, Leger, Eggeling, Richter et al. As such, I see these
four film-makers as the main precursors of the current
direction of avant-garde cinema.' In the case of 4161 -Mauern-Positiv-Negativ und Weg 1961
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