Three Windows
dal 20/4/2005 al 29/5/2005
Segnalato da
20/4/2005
Three Windows
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
The film installation is a tribute to the American poet Robert Lax, who spent the last three decades of his life on the Greek island Patmos. Black and white picture sequences, simultaneously projected on three screens, form a filmic story whose slow, meditative rhythm corresponds to the bare beauty of the Cycladic countryside. At the same time, the ascetic philosophy of the island-hermit and his minimalist aesthetic are quietly reflected in the work.
Hommage a Robert Lax. Film-Triptych by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel
The film installation »Three Windows« by filmmakers Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel is a tribute to the American poet Robert Lax (1915-2000), who spent the last three decades of his life on the Greek island Patmos. Over a period of seven years, films and recordings were made there which make up the basis for »Three Windows«. Black and white picture sequences, simultaneously projected on three screens, form a filmic story whose slow, meditative rhythm corresponds to the bare beauty of the Cycladic countryside. At the same time, the ascetic philosophy of the island-hermit and his minimalist aesthetic are quietly reflected in the work.
Robert Lax has often been referred to as the great unknown of American literature. Nevertheless, his radical »minimal poetry« has won vast recognition beyond literary circles. His studies at Columbia University were formative for his personal development: there, he belonged to an artists’ circle that also included the painter Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) and the writer (and later monk) Thomas Merton (1915-1968), and which can be regarded as a forerunner to the »Beat Generation« owing to its anti-bourgeois mindset. A short time after that, Robert Lax began his search for the essence of language in his poetry.
After its first showing in the Haus der Kunst in 1999 and a subsequent 14-city exhibition tour to, among other places, Tokyo, Helsinki, Rome, Prague and Riga, »Three Windows« is now returning to Munich.
Image: Robert Lax auf Padmos © CineNomad
Publication
Three Windows, Hommage à Robert Lax, A Video Installation by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel, 230 pages, abundant b/w illustrations, published by Bernhard Moosbrugger, Zurich and Cine Nomad, Munich, belleville Verlag Michael Farin, Munich 1999, 20 euros
Curator: Bernhart Schwenk
Opening: April 20th at 19:00.
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Str. 29 - München