Christian Jankowski - 16mm Mystery

The memory of a Baroque painting supplied the inspiration for two new works from Christian Jankowski. Depicted was a street scene in which a painting, perhaps a holy painting, is being carried through a city during a procession. What is actually shown on the canvas remains hidden since the painting is faced towards the row of houses in the background which, supposedly triggered by the power of the painting, collapses in on itself.

For the film 16mm Mystery Jankowski collaborated with the Strause Brothers, a special effect team responsible for the digital effects of films like "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Titanic". They transferred the scene to Los Angeles, the Mecca of modern filmmaking. The artist as the only protagonist in the film installs a 16mm projector and a projection screen on the parking lot deck in front of the skyline of downtown LA. Like in the Baroque painting, the spectator only sees the rear side of the screen, its front facing the skyline in the background. The moment the projector is running, a skyscraper is collapsing and the sky darkens. While the Baroque painter proofed his virtuosity through the picture in the picture, its painterly power causing a whole building to collapse, in Jankowskis case this omnipotent position is delegated to the Brother Strause, who selected not only the digital effects, but took over the direction of the film according to Jankowskis rough concept. Their interpretation of the scene appears like a parable of destruction, an eternal Hollywood cliché epitomized in a few minutes of film.

Also the film Hollywoodschnee, recently completed in Berlin, deals with cinematic visions. Figures who play a decisive role in the production of films, distributors, festival organizers, producers, critics, public and private investors were invited in front of the camera to present their idea of an "ideal Image" of a film. In the episodic scenes, the protagonists are surprised by special effects while they are explaining their visions. The spoken texts (unknown to Jankowski at the moment of the recording) and the special effects operate on two different levels, joined only through the principle of chance inherent in the concept.

Just as in earlier works which associate themselves symbiotically with other mass media such as television or the advertising world, professional boundaries are shifted and responsibilities are exchanged in these two films shown in specially constructed cinema halls at Klosterfelde gallery. Both raise questions regarding the nature of the image and its creation process – translated from the world of Baroque painting into the world of modern filmmaking.

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Christian Jankowski - 16mm Mystery