Page 50 - Studio International - November December 1975

Valie Export Remote . .. Remote . . . 1973 Otto Muehl Die AA -Kommune, Selbstdarstellungen 1974/75

difference between man and woman. become in the end an entertaining game. In his films he
None of the directions described so far embraces the passed over from elaborate montages of carefully planned
work of Otto Muehl : it is neither formalist nor narrative pieces (Sodoma) to simple black and white
in the sense of story-telling, nor can it be called poetic. documentations of spontaneous actions
Nevertheless it is an important contribution to the (lnvestmentfonds, Der geile Wotan), whose 'artlessness'
problems which have been brought up. In the discussion is as provocative as the content itself. In consequently
about contemporary art and artists he has taken a very renouncing traditional creative means, he deprives the
extreme stand. To him art is the expression of sick society spectator of the last possibility of keeping his distance
which has to be changed completely. In a healthy and forces him into a direct confrontation with what is
society no art in the traditional sense would be necessary. shown.
'In the professional role of the artist, the expression of The last film made in the commune — Die AA
sickness itself is accepted as a professional role ... all Kommune, Selbstdarstellungen 1974/75 — is therefore
needs that must remain unfulfilled in the nuclear family a documentation of the new work and has a
society are taken care of by art : longing for love, peace, propagandist function. Directed by Muehl while all the
harmony, sexual fulfilment, the ideal partner, the technique and the shooting is done by Otmar Bauer, the
longing for creative development. In innumerable art film consists of a series of complete scenes showing
works, whether picture, photo, film, music or literature, among others the selbstdarstellungen of commune
the existential misery of the nuclear family man is members, the first birth in the commune, and cabaret-
repeated in all its variations ... the artist may function as a like group actions. The impact of each single scene is so
social critic, but he is not capable of developing a real strong that no traditional artistic transformation is
alternative because he is himself buried in the dirt he is necessary. Only by the right camera angle do they become
reporting about ... no artist, no matter how famous, has art.
succeeded in making himself healthy through his art, Of course artists in Germany and Austria also work with
but many have managed to keep financially afloat film as a by-product of their other work, but up to now I
because of it. have not seen any films which reveal new impulses or are
'Although every artist must be considered as severely at least at the level of the films discussed here. I therefore
damaged, he is allowed to regard himself as a unique, refer interested readers to the exhibition catalogues
important, even blessed human being. This is the already quoted and limit this essay to film-makers alone.
consolation that art gives to the artist in return for his
ruined life ; the artist does not realize that he is giving up
his life through art. In that he retreats to his medium,
he resigns from reality. For this reason.'1, the life of every
artist is doomed to failure right from the beginning ... it 1 See H. H. Prinzler and W. Seidler, Kino-Buch 74-75, Katalog No. 2,
Munich 1975.
always ends tragically.'17
2 U mberto Eco, Einführung in die Semiotik, Munich 1972,
Today Muehl works with a commune to develop new Uni-Taschenbücher 125.
forms of social organization. The aim is to overcome the 3 See among others the catalogue of the exhibition Projekt '74, Cologne
nuclear family as the source of all psychic illnesses. 1974.
4 See Birgit Hein, Films, in Projekt '74, Ausst. Kat., 1974.
Art is not a product any more, it becomes a function :
5 Werner Nekes in Documenta V, Ausst. Kat., Kassel 1972.
'art is a modest method of healing oneself in that it brings 6 Werner Nekes, Sprengsätze zwischen den Kadern, in Filmkritik
dammed-up energy into circulation, but in order for art 6/1972, p.318.
to become a successful therapy it must expand beyond the 7 Dore 0, in Exprmntl 5, Fifth International Film Competition catalogue,
Brussels 1974, p.26.
production ot a work to fulfil the social demands of
6 Projekt '74, Ausst. Kat., Cologne 1974.
consolation and entertainment for the nuclear family-man 9 Michael Snow, 'La Region Centrale', in Film Culture No. 52, Spring 1971,
... we in the AA commune are attempting to intensify p.61.
the artistic means of expression into a bioenergetic 10 Especially interesting here is the conflict between P. A. Sitney and
G. Maciunas. Compare P. A. Sitney, 'Structural Film', and G. Maciunas,
n this way everyone becomes
'selbstdarstellungs'
'Some Comment on Structural Film' in P. A. Sitney's Film Culture Reader,
an artist. Humanity, the human body itself becomes the N.Y. and Washington 1970, p.326 ff and 349.
medium of this new art ... the purpose of the '1 As I have not seen any new work by either Schmidt or Scheugl in recent
selbstdarstellung is not only to remove the damages years, I cannot write about it. Kurt Kren gets a separate article in this issue
by Malcolm Le Grice. Therefore I leave him out here.
inflicted by the nuclear family, but to come to self- 2 The parts are from Work in Progress Teil A, Portraits,
realization in life through the selbstdarstellung, to Doppelprojektionen, Scharf - Unscharf, Zoom and Stills.
,
3 See 'Visual Principles' in The Focal Encyclopaedia of Film and
identify art and reality."' 8
A detailed analysis of these ideas — which would Television Techniques, London and New York 1969, p.968.
14 B. Eichenbaum, 'Probleme der Filmstilistik' in W. Beilenhoff (Hg.),
be revealed as utopian in comparison with Marxist
Poetik des Films, Munich 1974. Very interesting essays of the Russian
categories— cannot be achieved within the limits of this formalists of the late twenties, especially with regard to structural film.
article. But his radical questioning of traditional thinking, 15 Peter Weibel, Zur Philosophie von VT and VTR, Lenbach Museum,
which leads him to a new position, is important. Munich 1973.
Muehl gave up his material-actions when he realized that, 16 Ibid.
17'The Role of the Artist', lecture at the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts,
while designated as art and taken out of the life process, 4 June 1975, in AA commune News, 1/75, p.71.
piece by piece they were forced to lose their impact, to 18Ibid.
202