The Future of Art

Last updated
The Future of Art
The Future of Art - Cover.jpg
Niermann and Niedling on the battlements of Castle Wachsenburg in Thuringia
Directed by Erik Niedling
Ingo Niermann
Written byIngo Niermann
Produced byErik Niedling
Ingo Niermann
CinematographyChristian Görmer
Edited byDavid Adlhoch
Music byKatrin Vellrath
Release date
  • 10 November 2010 (2010-11-10)
Running time
150 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguagesEnglish
German

The Future of Art is a 2010 documentary film by Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann. It features interviews with protagonists of the contemporary art scene and premiered on 10 November 2010 in Berlin. The film was released on DVD in September 2011 accompanied by the book The Future of Art. A Manual, published by Sternberg Press. [1]

Contents

Subsequent to the premiere screening, the movie was playing at the Angermuseum in Erfurt from 10 to 28 November 2010. [2] Until May 2011 the interviews were also shown as a web series at 3min.de, a video-sharing site of Deutsche Telekom.

The movie was mainly shot in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and New York. [3]

Structure

The documentary starts with a short prologue (Niermann taking a bath in the Schlachtensee lake in Berlin), followed by the actual interviews which are divided into four main chapters:

I. Investigation
II. Creation
III. Incubation
IV. Presentation

In the interview series, the focus is on how the art business works and how an artist can be successful and create a lasting work of art. In the course of the film, Niermann develops the idea for an epochal work of art in an exemplary manner. Niermann then develops the concept of a pyramid.

The pyramid would be peeled out of a mountain or hill several hundred meters high. The work would be financed by a collector who would then be buried inside the pyramid thus created. After the death of the collector, the demolished material must be piled up again. The pyramid is to disappear.

The film ends at the Wachsenburg in Thuringia. Niedling and Niermann present their idea to the lord of the castle. They ask how much a collector would have to pay to have the castle temporarily pulled down and then the pyramid peeled out of the mountain as planned.

Featured artists, curators, collectors, and critics include (in order of appearance): [4]

Related Research Articles

Marlene Dietrich German-born American actress and singer (1901–1992)

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.

Crispin Glover American actor

Crispin Hellion Glover is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician.

Richard Linklater American film director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy romance films, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the animated films Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<i>Alien vs. Predator</i> (film) 2004 science fiction action film by Paul W. S. Anderson

Alien vs. Predator is a 2004 science fiction action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, and Tommy Flanagan. It is the first film installment of the Alien vs. Predator franchise, adapting a crossover bringing together the eponymous creatures of the Alien and Predator series, a concept which originated in a 1989 comic book written by Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. Anderson wrote the story, with the creators of the Alien franchise, Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett receiving additional story credit due to incorporation of elements from the Alien series, and Anderson and Shane Salerno adapted the story into a screenplay. Their writing was influenced by Aztec mythology, the comic book series, and the writings of Erich von Däniken. In the film, scientists are caught in the crossfire of an ancient battle between Aliens and Predators as they attempt to escape a bygone pyramid.

Johannes Grenzfurthner

Johannes Grenzfurthner is an Austrian artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, curator, theatre director, performer and lecturer. Grenzfurthner is the founder, conceiver and artistic director of monochrom, an international art and theory group. Most of his artworks are labelled monochrom.

<i>Through a Glass Darkly</i> (film) 1961 film

Through a Glass Darkly is a 1961 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow and Lars Passgård. The film tells the story of a schizophrenic young woman (Andersson) vacationing with her family on a remote island, during which time she experiences delusions about meeting God, who ultimately appears to her in the form of a monstrous spider. Meanwhile, her author father attempts to use her illness in his work, and her brother struggles with sexual frustration.

Joshua Simon

Joshua Simon, is a curator, writer, publisher, cultural critic, poet, filmmaker and public intellectual. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA.

<i>Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed</i> 2008 American documentary-style propaganda film

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 American documentary-style propaganda film directed by Nathan Frankowski and starring Ben Stein. The film contends that there is a conspiracy in academia to oppress and exclude people who believe in intelligent design. It portrays the scientific theory of evolution as a contributor to communism, fascism, atheism, eugenics and, in particular, Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. Although intelligent design is a pseudoscientific religious idea, the film presents it as science-based, without giving a detailed definition of the concept or attempting to explain it on a scientific level. Other than briefly addressing issues of irreducible complexity, Expelled examines intelligent design purely as a political issue.

Great Pyramid Monument Monument

The Great Pyramid Monument is a German proposal for a mausoleum, patterned after the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Erik Gandini

Erik Walter Gandini is an Italian-Swedish film director, writer, and producer and professor of documentary film at Stockholm University of the Arts.

Ingo Niermann is a German novelist, writer, and artist.

Erik Niedling

Erik Niedling is a German artist. He is also known for his 2010 film The Future of Art, a documentary on the contemporary art scene.

<i>Indie Game: The Movie</i> 2012 film

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film made by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film is about the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.

Jason Blum American film producer

Jason Ferus Blum is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, which produced the horror franchises Paranormal Activity (2007–2015), Insidious (2010–2018), and The Purge (2013–2021). Blum also produced Sinister (2012), Oculus (2013), Whiplash (2014), The Gift (2015), Hush (2016), Split (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Get Out (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), Upgrade (2018), Halloween (2018), Us (2019), The Invisible Man (2020), and Freaky (2020).

Frauke Finsterwalder is a German film director and screenwriter. Finsterwalder has directed several shorts and documentaries and is the director of the 2013 feature film Finsterworld.

Alexa Karolinski German filmmaker (born 1984)

Alexa Karolinski is a German filmmaker, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. More recently, she co-wrote, produced, and co-created the Netflix series Unorthodox (2020).

Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons is a non-profit public art institution based in Utrecht, Netherlands.

<i>The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin</i> 2014 American film

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Nicholas Mross. The film interviews multiple companies and people that have played important roles in the expansion of Bitcoin. It first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 23, 2014. The film was nominated for the “Best International Documentary Film” at the 2014 Zurich Film Festival. The film has a run time of 96 minutes.

Annette Mangaard is a Danish/Canadian filmmaker, artist, writer, director, and producer, whose films and installations have been shown internationally at art galleries, cinematheques and film festivals. With a practice rooted in theatrical drama and explorative documentary, Mangaard's films investigate notions and nuances of freedom within the confines of structural expectations. Mangaard's early films are filled with experimental visual effects, footage is often shot in Super 8 and reshot in 16mm and then printed optically frame by frame. The result is a grainy textured look, with images that are saturated in colour.

Erik Nelson is an American documentary film director and television producer. Nelson has produced and directed several films, television specials and television programs such as Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Mega Disasters, When Good Times Go Bad, What Were You Thinking?, Unsolved History, Prehistoric Predators and More than Human.

References

  1. Niermann, Ingo; Niedling, Erik: The Future of Art. A Manual. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2011. ISBN   978-1-934105-63-4.
  2. See museum's website.
  3. Cf. review in De:Bug magazine.
  4. All original screenshots taken from Wikimedia Commons, the producers released them under CC BY-SA.