Maria Eichhorn

In 1995 the exhibition '23 Short Films / 23 Film Posters' took place in the Galerie Walcheturm in Zurich. Eva Presenhuber was the director at the Galerie Walcheturm from 1989 to 1997, in 1998 she opened the Galerie Hauser & Wirth 2 which was renamed Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber in 1999. The exhibition '23 Short Films / 23 Film Posters' will be shown with the same film programme in the Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber.

For the duration of the exhibition the gallery will become a cinema. In the entrance area there are film posters. At the reception desk there are drinks. In the exhibition space there is cinema seating and a film projector in front of a curtain. Each day a different film is screened.

The premises that now house the Galerie Walcheturm were used in the 1940s and 50s by Knorr and Persil to present films advertising their products. The film on show from this period is 'Ein Tag mit Knorrli' (A Day with Knorrli). Knorrli travels all round the world with his delivery van. 'Rhythm', made by Len Lye for the Chrysler Corporation, centres on the assembly line in the car factory. 'Trade Tattoo (In Tune With Industry)' by Len Lye sets trade to a rhythm: "Markets are found by correspondence ". The Korean film 'Kongchang ui bulpit (The Light of a Factory)' by Eun Lee presents the conflict in a textile factory between a worker demanding higher wages and her superior. 'La reprise du travail aux usines Wonder' (Return to Work at the Wonder Factories) shows a continuous shot of a young woman employee outside the entrance to the Wonder light bulb factory in Parisian suburb of Saint Ouen; she is refusing to return to work. 'Now', by Santiago Alvarez, uses the song Now by Lena Horne, banned in the USA at the time, to heighten the impact of documentary footage of the fight against racial discrimination. 'Subjektitüde' by Helke Sander: a woman and two men at a bus stop. 'N. or N.W.' (North or North West)', by Len Lye, is a live action film of a quarrel between lovers. The two films 'Cue Rolls' and 'Production Instructions' by Morgan Fisher show a) a text that explains the process leading up to the action on screen, and b) simultaneously, written and spoken instructions for the screening of the film. 'Experiments in Three-Colour Separation' by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill explains the use and theory of three-colour separation in films. Der 'Doggensong' (The Hound's Song) by Susanne Müller is the film of a song and the song of a film in one. 'Girl from Moush' by Gariné Torossian: "I'm trying to reach Armenia, just to hear an Armenian voice." 'Nachlaß' (Estate) by Robin Curtis is about the relationship between Robin Curtis and her grandmother, an Ukrainian immigrant in Canada. 'Sally's Beauty Spot' by Helen Lee "criticises Western stereotypes of Asian images of femininity, and in doing so engages in post-colonial discourse in the spirit of Homi K. Bhabha" (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus). 'C'mon Babe (Danke schoen)' by Sharon Sandusky consists exclusively of archive material: lemmings running wildly through the landscape and plunging from cliffs into the sea far below. 'Canadian Pacific': ships at sea. 'Real Italian Pizza': the ordinary and extraordinary things that happen at the entrance to a pizzeria. These last two are both by David Rimmer. 'Kübelkind wird glatt und rund' (Bucket Kid Gets Smooth and Round) by Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz is from a 22-part series shown on German television in the 1970s. In 'Marilyn Times Five', Bruce Connor presents five, in themselves repetitive, shots of Marilyn Monroe. 'Amy', by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, explores the career of the flyer Amy Johnson. In 'A & B in Ontario' the makers of the film, Hollis Frampton and Joyce Wieland, film each other to the sound of whirring cameras. 'Color Cry (The Fox Chase)', by Len Lye, is a so-called 'direct film', made without a camera according to the shadow cast principle.

The films will be screened from Tuesdays to Fridays at 5.00 pm; on Saturdays at 3.00 pm. Each film will only be screened once. The films vary in length between 1 and 35 minutes.

The 23 Film Posters were published in 1995 as an unlimited edition. Each poster lists the title, country of origin, year, director, composer, photographer, format and length of a particular film.

Films selected together with Stefanie Schulte Strathaus. Distributors: Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek e.V., Berlin.

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Maria Eichhorn