Bringing Democracy to You

Series title: A-Clip III - Berlin 2003 (Episode 47)

Director: Florian Zeyfang    → show biography   ← hide biography

Biography: Florian Zeyfang born 1965 in Stuttgart, Germany. 1987 to 1993 at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin. 1997/8 at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, currently Professor for Video/Installation at the Art Academy in Umeå, Sweden. In his texts, videos and installation work, the Berlin based artist, videomaker and writer Florian Zeyfang critically looks at the connotations of a globalized world of media signs and at the consequences for the society and the individual, taking into account historic aspects of both art and political movements. His projects are conceived within different forms of the moving image: film, video, slide projection, animation. Spacious installations as well as slide series ("slow films") form an important part of his discussion of “time-based media.” Florian Zeyfang regularly takes part in exhibitions nationally and abroad, recently in Kunstverein Köln, at A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Artists Space, New York; at the 2nd Tirana Biennale, at ICA Moscow, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kunstverein Hannover, at the 6th Werkleitz Biennale in Halle and at the KW Berlin. Furthermore, the artist curates projects for institutions like CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warschau, sala rekalde in Bilbao, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, the 8th Havanna Biennale, the foto festival in Houston, in the Museum for Applied Arts Wien, in the MAK Schindlerhaus in Los Angeles and the Swiss Institute in New York. Currently, Florian Zeyfang works on exhibition projects ranging between Art and experimental film (“Poor Man´s Expression”, Berlin 2006; “1,2,3 Avant-Gardes”, Warschau/Stuttgart/Bilbao 2006-2008). Lisa Schmidt-Colinet and Alexander Schmoeger are architects and live in Vienna. Since 2001 Schmidt-Colinet/Schmoeger and Florian Zeyfang have collaborated on exhibitions and projects. Together with Eugenio Valdés Figueroa they published “Pabellón Cuba,” an extensive reader on art, architecture, and film in Cuba.

Director: Ulrich Heinke

Director: Rolf Pilarski

Director: A-Clip Kollektiv

Country: Germany

Year: 2003

Synopsis: Mc Iraq - Mc Syria - Mc Korea - Mc Saudia - Mc Cuba - Mc Iran Bringing democracy / demoncrazy to you ! Soon a franchise everywhere. Interested ? Call Don´s friends: 1-800-DESTROY or Dick´s friends: 1-800-REBUILD

A-Clip - 53 advertising spots as an intervention in cinema commercials The 53 A-Clips on view were produced in April 2003 in Berlin, London and Los Angeles. Five in Los Angeles, seven in London and 41 in Germany, coordinated by the studio in Berlin. A-Clip is based on an editorial principle. The films are created in a studio process during which the films are jointly conceived and discussed. The result is 53 highly different films dealing in a broad framework with the theme of "inner uncertainty,” the uncertainty gripping people through discussions from the outside (war, economic crisis and threat scenarios), leading to a loss of solidarity and the notion of being exposed to these scenarios personally and on one’s own. The films do not present depressive visions of doom, however, but develop various cinematic languages that make reference to personal and collective freedom of action. The result is 53 short films, 53 very subjective ways of dealing with the medium of film and the possibilities of cinema. The A-Clip project, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund of the City of Berlin, now makes it possible for these films to address a general public, beyond the field of art or festival structures. A total of 500 copies of the A-Clips are screened in three cities (Berlin, London and Los Angeles), as well as in movie theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.