Clemens von Wedemeyer

70001

Short film featuring digital technology about crowds and demonstrations.

The Horses of a Cavalry Captain

During World War II, Wehrmacht captain Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch traveled in advance of the army scouting for barracks. An amateur cinematographer, he also made 16mm images behind the front. Part of a larger project, Die pferde des Rittmeisters, made by Vietinghoff-Riesch’s grandson, presents footage of the cavalry horses, the artist’s commentary never letting us forget that these attractive creatures were also Nazi machines.

Social Geometry

The video is an artistic exploration of the schematic representation of human relationships and non-human entities, such as in images in networks. It represents the translation of data into abstract images.

Transformation Scenario

Blockbuster movies are increasingly produced based on the use of algorithms. We have grown accustomed to watching scenes in which numerous automated charac-ters populate the screen. Animated by algorithms, they interact as an artificial crowd that appears lively and real. Simulated life originated in computer games and movies, but is meanwhile influencing many areas of the real world. In addition to urban planning and evacuation plans, market forecasts are also determined by virtual scenarios. To what extent does this impact our society and thus our life? Do we already sense a change?

Esiod 2015

How are you using my memories? What programs will replace us? Where is my data? At a bank in the year 2051

Rushes

Inherently political, the three films that constitute Muster (Rushes) (2012) visually link to one another, with each roughly half-hour narrative (79 minutes combined for the single-channel version) taking place at a former Benedictine monastery outside of Kassel, Germany. This monastery functioned as a concentration camp during the Nazi era, a reformatory for girls in the 1970s, and later a psychiatric clinic.

Rushes

Inherently political, the three films that constitute Muster (Rushes) (2012) visually link to one another, with each roughly half-hour narrative (79 minutes combined for the single-channel version) taking place at a former Benedictine monastery outside of Kassel, Germany. This monastery functioned as a concentration camp during the Nazi era, a reformatory for girls in the 1970s, and later a psychiatric clinic.

From the Opposite Side

Shot with a hidden camera, from the perspective of someone wandering the streets, the 40-minute film loop tracks 24 hours in the life of the area around the railway station. Actors play passers-by, and passers-by thus become actors.

The Cast: Procession

The Cast (Procession) recalls the the protests that broke out among extras in 1958 during filming of the Hollywood production Ben Hur in the Cinecittà film studio near Rome, which was originally founded by Mussolini. Thousands of unemployed workers had hoped to be hired for the scenes featuring human masses. When they were turned away they stormed the film studio. In the film, the voices of the protesters of yesterday are played by cultural activists of the present: members of the Teatro Valle Occupato, who came together in 2011 in order to save the Teatro Valle, the oldest theatre in Rome, by assuming collective management of the theatre. - e-flux