Page 32 - Studio International - November December 1975

new ground, but it is not as clearly successful as the the work of other artists, particularly the actions of
other three. Otto Muehl and Günter Brus, though 11/65 is based
Though, unlike most other commentators, I have never on an Op-art picture by Helga Philip ; and the third
considered Kubelka's Unsere Afrikareise to be more than is from 1967 to the present, continuing individual film
a well-made but ordinary film, his three earlier films are work (14/67 to 31/75). But it has extended to include
rightly recognized as major points of reference, and it is a the production of drawings, collages, prints and in
source of consternation and surprise to myself and many particular five limited edition boxes, each containing
of my contemporaries that Kren's work is not similarly an 8mm copy of one of his films, facsimiles of the
recognized by American critics. An atmosphere of preparatory diagrams, documentation and photographs,
recrimination has come to surround the comparison of sold in the same way as prints. In the last phase there
these two Viennese innovators, and it is difficult to have been further collaborations with Muehl — but in the
maintain an impartial stance, but my concern is with the more clearly defined role of cameraman or participant in
contribution they make through their films. Muehl's work— and with Brus, where Brus has been
Kubelka's best film remains the imageless, cinema- simply a participant in a Kren film.
concrete Arnulf Rainer. Considering the time at which it In many ways the work divides more simply in two,
was produced, it makes an extreme and surprising the wholly individual films and the two years of deep
challenge to preconceptions about film content, involvement with Muehl and Brus. The notoriety of the
eliminating both photography and representation. Muehl actions, and the overwhelming content in the
Adebar and Schwechater are also important and films which are based on them, perhaps explains some of
accomplished works, but their concept of abstracting the lack of understanding of Kren's work in America.
kinetic qualities by high contrast printing and the use of Even amongst English film-makers there is a tendency to
negative, and counterpointing this with the dismiss this period as irrelevant to Kren's main
orchestration of the montage, can be seen to fulfil a contribution. This is short-sighted, since the films stand
graphic function similar to certain abstract avant-garde as satisfactory works and certainly have an important
films of the twenties (ie sequences from Hans Richter's bearing on his work as a whole. Though out of
Film Studie 1926). Through the image contrast and the chronological order, I shall consider Kren's involvement
editing rate, the photographic trace is separated from the with the Direct Art, Material-aktion movement first.
identity and association of the image. Movement and It is evident from Kren's films of the Muehl actions and
rhythm are thereby abstracted into the visual-musical from statements made by Brus, that some of the initial
play of forms, consistent with the often explicit aims of impetus for the movement was an extension of the
early abstract films. The development of this graphically expressionist, action painting concept into
abstract aesthetic in film had lagged behind through the performance and away from a static end-product.
lack of experiment between the wars. But by the late Brus, for example, took the psychological analogy
fifties, in comparison with contemporary developments in between the therapeutic action of dripping paint and
the other arts, it no longer represented as fundamental an shitting, to the logical conclusion of shitting 'on-stage.'
aesthetic challenge as Arnulf Rainer, or posed as As the painterly component of the actions gave way
complex artistic problems as the Kren films of the same increasingly to the bodily function component, issues
period. In fact, a major distinction in Kren's work is the of inhibition and common morality grew unavoidable.
broad rejection of the abstract-graphic solution to the The work became concerned with presenting the less
search for new film form. The image never becomes acceptable (if ordinary) bodily functions, and with
divorced from the thing filmed or the processes of film. extending awareness of the range of sexuality,
H is work maintains a constant, tense dialectic between violence, sadism and masochism. In the repressive
conception and structuring on the one hand and public atmosphere in which performances took place,
experience in the subjective, existentialist sense on the there was a constant danger of criminal prosecution,
other. and the work consequently developed a strong political
With thirty-one 16mm works to date Kren's historical and didactic character. In the historical sense, this
role in Europe is comparable to that of Brakhage in direction is consistent with an existential concern with
America, as is the way in which they each historically the basic materiality of human experience, and with the
represent some aspect of the transition from the aims of psychoanalysis through bringing to 'public'
existential to the structural within their work. Though consciousness, sub- or un-conscious tendencies and
Kren's work chiefly initiates and contributes to the formal/ connections. It is also consistent with de Sade through
structural axis, and my own bias will tend to stress that the amoral exploration of human capability, wherever
contribution, it is very complex at the imagist/associative that project might lead.
level. The fullest examination of Kren as an artist needs to Considering the particular historical and geographical
ask questions about the psychological basis of his situation of Vienna, after the war, it is not surprising that
imagery, through which biographical details would the Austrian psyche was much preoccupied with
inevitably become significant. Though his films are in no accommodating the shared responsibility for the
way 'diarist' or directly autobiographical, not even to the atrocities of the Nazi era. It is quite wrong to see Brus,
degree to which Brakhage's are, he has always Muehl or Nitsch as simply expressing this guilt or as
maintained an extreme existentialist stance which therapeutically catharsizing it. However, in addition to
integrates all levels of his work with his life experience. the relatively less contentious material-body-psychology
I do not feel well qualified to deal with this aspect in the element, the growing engagement with violence,
detail of psychological interpretation, but I cannot avoid sexual sadism and sexual masochism confronts some of
some speculation or at least some general consideration the major emotional responses to the war. Kren's
of the work's functioning on this level. involvement with this direction of 'enquiry' is not
As a Jewish child in Vienna, Kren grew up with the arbitrary or peripheral, as can be seen in what I consider
spreading anti-semitism of the emerging Third Reich to be his best film of the period,
and was sent to spend all the war years hidden in 10/65-67-Selbstverstümmelung (Self-Mutilation) 2, which is based
relative safety in Holland. He rejoined his family in on a Brus action. As in all Kren's work, though not
Austria in 1947, but seems never to have been able to immediately evident in this film, it has a strong,
recover a satisfactory emotional contact with them. He underlying system for the montage. Even on the surface,
became a cashier in the Austrian National Bank, there is a quite clear formal play between the white
continuing to work there until 1968. Since his first 16mm identity of the cinema screen and the whiteface
film, 1/57 -Versuch mit syntetischem Ton (all his film titles covered in dough and pigment filmed against a white
are methodically pre-fixed by the number of the work in floor. But the expressionist symbolism of the action and
complete chronology, followed by the year of objects is unavoidable. Surgical knives, scissors and pins
realization, thus 1/57 denotes film no 1, 1957), there pull and distort the dough-flesh of the face, and drawn
have been three distinct phases in his work. The first gashes are confused with the holes of mouth and eyes.
extends from 1957 to 1962 during which he The cruelties of Dachau and the torture of the medical
completed five films ; the second from 1964 to 1967 experiments of Dr. Sigmund Rascher are unavoidably
when he made eight (6/64 to 13/67), all based around implicit in the images of this film.
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