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
The
«Portrait of a Cardinal» from the Oskar Reinhart Collection is the bust portrait of a high-ranking church official, probably Grand Inquisitor Don Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541–1609), whose
full-length portrait is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Tellingly, the painting in New York bears the signature of the artist, El Greco, on a crumpled sheet on the floor, at the Grand Inquisitor’s feet. These types of works were usually commissioned by the church, by aristocrats, or by otherwise rich and powerful figures, serving as prestigious symbols of power.
In the novella «El Greco Paints the Grand Inquisitor», Stefan Andres fictionalizes the history of this commissioned artwork, shedding light on the power structures behind it, especially the power imbalance between client and artist. Using the portrait as an example, the text explores artistic resistance to authorities as well as the aesthetic deconstruction of power relations.
Today, over 400 years after the painting was created, the topic remains as relevant as ever. Our film selection illuminates the phenomenon of power at various levels – whether political, sociocultural, or private. The world is permeated by power structures that are sometimes more, sometimes less visible. This programme, however, goes beyond the mere documentation of these structures, additionally focussing on their cinematic manifestations as acts of rebellion.
«Dreams about Putin» combines found footage and 3D game animation to explore the theme of oppression and a society’s collective unconscious. In «I Have Sinned a Rapturous Sin», fragments from Forugh Farrochzād’s poem «The Sin» are juxtaposed with statements by Islamic clerics advising women on how to control their lust. «Freedom & Independence» confronts quotes from Ayn Rand, the self-proclaimed philosopher of Objectivism, with evangelical content from US mainstream movies. «An Ecstatic Experience» is a cinematic meditation on transcendence as resistance. «45th Parallel» stages a monologue in a building that symbolizes the arbitrariness of borders, pondering spaces without social or legal restrictions. In «Starfuckers», the power relations within the film industry are revealed and turned upside down.
Unequal living conditions and unequally distributed resources are still the reality for most of humanity. The films in this programme address this imbalance: they question and challenge, offering impressive examples of aesthetic resistance.
Curated by John Canciani and Ivana Frigo
