SITUATION #21

Film would not be cinema without the cut. Whether an invisible seam or obvious scar, the “cut” is a fundamental component of cinematic narrative. In the experimental film collages of Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller, the cut is made evident through their use of found footage material, which is taken from its original context and combined through montage into a new work. In their short film Cut, the title and technique is addressed on multiple thematic levels, since the artists “dissect” the body of film history in order to uncover sequences showing wounds, scars, stitches, and associated images that are then combined into a thirteen-minute film. These are images that literally go under the skin, like cinema itself. Working with found footage, Girardet & Müller’s film compositions are a reflection on the cinematic medium; a medium that is itself increasingly “dissected” as film is moving out of the movie theater only to reappear on the many digital screens of our mobile phones, tablets, laptops or TV sets.

FOUND FOOTAGE 2.0, 27.10.2015
Discussion as part of SITUATION #21

In the age of Web 2.0 working with found footage has become a globally widespread practice. Both artists and amateurs use the net as an inexhaustible archive of material, which is researched, collected, and used – manipulated and recontextualised at will. Through the use of digital tools, what were formerly largely the artistic strategies of appropriation have now become a common cultural practice. Never could aesthetic and artistic material be made available so quickly and circulate so fast as today via the Internet. Based on the appropriations strategies and experimental found footage collages of Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, the talk investigated what influence the developments and dynamics of Web 2.0 has had on the treatment and relevance of found footage in contemporary artistic practice.

Participants of the discussion: Johannes Binotto (cultural and media scholar), Regula Bochsler (author, historian and artist), Doris Gassert (media scholar and Research Curator, Fotomuseum Winterthur) and Aline Juchler (art and film scholar, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur).

A cooperation with 19. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur.