For this year’s Main Focus: Beyond the Frame, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur has teamed up with the Oskar Reinhart Collection «Am Römerholz» to enable an unforgettable encounter between two prominent institutions from Winterthur’s cultural landscape.
The Main Focus explores the interplay between the disciplines of fine art and film. Works from the Oskar Reinhart Collection served as inspiration. The former mansion of art collector Oskar Reinhart (1885–1965) houses over 200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures of European art. The core of the collection consists of French Impressionist paintings and their immediate predecessors, supplemented by important examples of older art.
The period covered by the Oskar Reinhart Collection ends around the time when film emerges and spreads worldwide. Our aim is to break down the boundaries of the two disciplines and bring short film programmes into dialogue with artworks from the collection. The first phase of the project consisted of a lively exchange with the museum’s deputy director, Katja Baumhoff. We looked at some exemplary works to establish thematic clusters for our joint format. Examining the content and form of these exhibits, we mapped out artistic concepts from the visual arts and transferred them to the medium of film. Our main interest was not in tracking down transmedia counterparts or reassessing historic materials. Rather, we were surprised by the fact that these images dating back to the 15th century are full of contemporary themes, enriching our view of the present. Some of the connections we have identified are more associative, others more direct. We invite you to join and continue this dialogue with us. We also encourage you to view the artworks in person at the Oskar Reinhart Collection «Am Römerholz». Our hope is to inspire an exchange of ideas – not just at the festival but also in front of the originals.
Ten film programmes have emerged from this interdisciplinary collaboration; we have selected six of them to be screened at this year's Kurzfilmtage. These programmes can be considered cinematic interpretations, discussions, or complements to the artworks. They contain the blood, sweat, and tears of filmmakers, artists, curators, and film and art scholars.
In Landscapes of the Mind, the boundary between the mental world and the outside world is blurred – interiority becomes visible, finding expression in diverse cinematic forms. I Want to Break Free addresses power structures and imbalances: the films question, rebel, and give artistic expression to resistance. The shorts in Puzzle Me don’t tell conventional linear stories; instead, they meander, twist, and turn, containing little secrets to be deciphered. In Look at Me, cinematic portraits explore the self and how it is staged in front of the camera, playing the eternal game of representation and self-presentation. Ghosts of Objects experiments with cinematic motifs like life and death, movement and stillness, telling stories that point beyond themselves. And our selection in He’s Got the Look revolves around the objectification of men, offering glimpses – some serious, some tongue-in-cheek – behind the façade of toned bodies and six-packs.
Our Main Focus: Beyond the Frame is a visual journey across media, prompting reflection on the social value of art and promoting an understanding of cultural diversity and artistic expression. It also aims to spark a dialogue that reaches far beyond the timeframe of the works, addressing both historical and contemporary discourses.
Curated by John Canciani and Ivana Frigo
Quite a few artworks in the Oskar Reinhart Collection «Am Römerholz» revolve around mental health. Vincent van Gogh’s stay in a mental asylum was one of the Dutch painter’s most productive phases. He restlessly created numerous works there, including
«Ward in the Hospital at Arles», on view at the Oskar Reinhart Collection. The painting addresses the topic at the level of composition and provides clues to the painter’s own state of mind: The spatial perspective and lines guide the viewer’s eye to a door in the back of the long, narrow room, where it seems infinitely distant and unreachable.
Films often visualize interiority, employing a wide range of stylistic tools to convey emotions. This visual representation of feelings has strong narrative or semantic qualities. The process of searching – for answers, for oneself, and for ways to express pain, anger, or loneliness – characterizes the films selected for this programme. The protagonists’ inner worlds gain the upper hand over the outside world. The struggle for control also manifests itself aesthetically, as a search for suitable forms to express the inner urgency.
In «The Spiral», the protagonist has a panic attack, quickly losing herself in a labyrinth of fear, isolation, and alienation. «Il faut regarder le feu ou brûler dedans» follows a fireloving woman in the midst of devastating wildfires. «Sieben Mal am Tag beklagen wir unser Los und nachts stehen wir auf, um nicht zu träumen» is a sort of devotional book come to life, based on the story of an unemployed man from East Germany who lost his memory in 1989. The end of the world is approaching in «It’s Raining Frogs Outside», where Maya’s return to her home province in the Philippines increasingly turns into a weird fever dream. In «Hideous», pop star Oliver Sim is the guest of honour at a talk show that degenerates into a crazy vortex of love, shame, and blood.
These films blur the boundary between mental states and external environments – the interior is turned outward, made visible, given artistic expression. The protagonists’ reality mirrors their states of mind and inner struggles, engulfing them in a maelstrom of bizarre events.
Curated by John Canciani and Ivana Frigo
