Volker Gerling

PORTRAITS IN MOTION. The exhibition

Photography

6 April to 16 July 2022
Exhibition opening: 5th of April 2022
BTV Stadtforum Innsbruck
Free entrance

Between photography, cinema and performance

An artist with a medium one certainly doesn’t see every day: the flipbook is a time-based object that is set in motion by the viewers themselves. Before our very eyes, individual photographs give rise to animated scenes with a beginning and an end. As soon as the last page is flipped, the flipbook is transformed back into the deconstruction of itself as a sequence of analogue images. On the one hand this medium possesses the apparent triviality of a toy, yet on the other, there is a strange synchronous complexity about it, making it object, series of photos and film all at once.

Frau mit geschlossenen Augen, Berlin, 2003

The physics behind the magic of these wonderful image sequences: a SLR camera that, with the help of a motor, takes 36 shots in 12 seconds. Our brain is capable of merging these rapidly flipped individual images into a smoothly flowing motion.

Alter Mann mit Krawatte, Unterstedt, 2009

“Volker Gerling captures the magic of the transitory and nearly invisible. His snapshots are poetic blinks of the eye lasting precisely 12 seconds.”

To Volker Gerling, the production process and the outcome are equally important: On long wanderings he carries his flipbooks on a hawker’s tray, and as he shows them, he meets new protagonists. Covering long distances on foot, the slow progress involved, meeting people through already existing flipbooks, all these are genuine elements of this work.

Along with his “traveling exhibitions” Volker Gerling has gained an international reputation above all as a successful stage artist who has presented his flipbooks to audiences at art and theatre festivals all over the world.

Mädchen mit Sommersprossen, Zürich, 2003

For INN SITU, the artist was invited to create new works in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The exhibition at the BTV Stadtforum will be the first comprehensive presentation of Volker Gerling’s work in a visual arts context. The show will include videos of roughly 20 works and their background stories as well as individual portraits and glimpses into the artist’s work method.

Volker Gerling’s Flipbook Cinema

Born in Hilden, North Rhine-Westphalia, in 1968, he studied at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam-Babelsberg and has worked at the interface between photography and film since 1998. Gerling’s stage show, which he has performed at art and theatre festivals in some 30 countries on four continents to date, is based on numerous long walks and his experiences and encounters along the way. In 2015 he won the Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The artist lives with his family in the Schorfheide near Berlin.

INN SITU – Photography, music, dialogue

For this series we ask photographic artists working internationally to reflect on their connection with Tyrol and Vorarlberg and to create an original exhibition based on this encounter. Outside view meets inside perspective. Photography as a strategy to view our own world through the eyes of others.

Our focus here lies on artistic positions in which the process of perception and the development of the work on site both constitute important elements of the work itself.

Parallel to this, we invite musicians from the region to produce a new concert in artistic resonance with the photographic works. The dramaturgical triad of the INN SITU series is rounded off with a series of commentary dialogues combining science and everyday culture. All exhibitions and concerts hosted by INN SITU are original works developed specifically for the BTV Stadtforum.

Isa Kurz

LANDSCAPE AS PERFORMANCE

Music

The concert took place on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 7 p.m.

Four musicians embarked on an explosive collaboration: traditional Alpine music meets various playing practices of different cultures in resonance with Andrea Botto’s world of images. A musical transfer of knowledge across mountains and valleys to the here and now of the concert.

The Tyrolean multi-instrumentalist Isa Kurz started her diverse musical education as a child, learning first the recorder, dulcimer and guitar, later the piano, violin and oboe. She also taught herself to play the accordion and harp. Kurz has been invited by INN SITU to respond to the exhibition with the development of a new concert format. For this, she will involving her ensemble, JÜTZ, plus a special guest – a conference of sounds from all across the Alps played by four distinct personalities.

The Tyrolean-Swiss ensemble respects and preserves a long tradition of Alpine folk music, while at the same time opening it up to “borderless improvisation and outward freedom” (Folkmagazin). The musical paths intersect with various regional dialects and tonal timbres. The lines between traditional, classical and contemporary elements blur.

Isa Kurz – vocals, violin, accordion, dulcimer, Daniel Woodtli – trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals, dulcimer, Philipp Moll – double bass, vocals

Special guest: Bernhard Schimpelsberger – percussion

When it comes to explosions, a percussionist is the logical choice for backup. On his unique, multifaceted and melodic “drumkit” Bernhard Schimpelsberger sets out on sonic journeys, sweeping his audience off into a fascinating “tapestry of colours and elements full of virtuosity and surprising twists” (Augsburger Allgemeine). His skill, which matches “the style of a virtuoso tabla player” (Confluence), takes him on tour all over the world with stars like Anoushka Shankar (sitar) and Akram Khan (dance).