It was a task tracking down award-winning filmmaker Stephan Roemer, who is on a whirlwind tour of India. He's in Mumbai to screen two films today
It was a task tracking down award-winning filmmaker Stephan Roemer, who is on a whirlwind tour of India. He's in Mumbai to screen two films todayHe is a filmmaker, artist and critic, all rolled into one. Stephan Roemer is also a professor for New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. And it's all these skills that culminate in the award-winning films he has made. Roemer is in the city to screen two of his films Conceptual Paradise and Boulevard of Illusions today. Although not very familiar with Indian audiences, Roemer is hoping his work will get junta thinking about their own approach towards art.
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Stephan Roemer on the sets of Conceptual Paradise |
What is Conceptual Paradise about?It is an essay-film about Conceptual art. My aim was to involve all generations of conceptual artists since the early 60's. It turns out to be a conversation about the paradigms of intellectually-reflected art practices, which can hardly be summed up under one categorical "ism". That is why there is nearly no agreement about it. So I am considering this permanently ongoing discussion to be the productive impulse of so-called Conceptual art.
How was it interacting with the artists while making Conceptual Paradise? Especially, Yoko Ono?As you know, Yoko Ono is very well-known, so, it is a bureaucratic procedure to get in touch with her. She is a professional: No time to waste and not a word too much. But with other great people like Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, Ed Ruscha, Yvonne Rainer and Shilpa Gupta, it was more of a personal encounter, since I have also known them for a long time.
Tell us what to look forward to in Boulevard of Illusions?It is all about one big boulevard in New Belgrade, formerly known as "Boulevard Lenin", which was used by Tito for driving into the city after coming back from international meetings. In the movie, you find old representational buildings and sites on one side and the architecture of the new economy from West and East on the other. The visuals are interspersed with comments that tell stories about the city and different places you pass by.
What do you expect audiences to take away from the screening and discussion?That is a very difficult question, because I don't know the Indian audience well. My main interest is to give people an intellectual impulse with my art, which can sometimes change a life like mine changed.
The screening, organised by Jnanapravaha and Max Mueller Bhavan, is on today at 6 pm at Jnanapravaha, Queens Mansion, 3rd floor, AK Nayak Marg, Fort.
Call: 22072974/75. Entry is free.What is Conceptual Art?Conceptual art emerged as a movement during the 1960s. In part, it was a reaction against formalism as it was then articulated by the influential New York art critic Clement Greenberg. Conceptual art also reacted against the commodification of art; it attempted a subversion of the gallery or museum as the location and determiner of art, and the art market as the owner and distributor of art.
