Kunst & Revolution

Art & Revolution
‘The anthology “20 Action and Destruction Films 1965–1979” represents a self-contained work of 20 films with durations from one second to ten minutes and is based on experience gathered over 15 years of working with the medium of film. Films 15 to 19 are documentations of happenings staged by the Viennese actionists, including the sensational action at Vienna University in 1968, which led after weeks of demonization at the hands of the Austrian mass media to the arrest of “ringleaders” Brus, Muehl and Wiener, a subsequent trial and long prison sentences for Brus and Muehl as well as to the emigration of the Viennese actionists.’
Kunst & Revolution is a documentation on the famous action known as the “filthy uni mess”, which led to a jury court trial. I only had a few metres of film with me and they were quickly spent, but still the film gives one a rough impression of the events. As a whole mythology quickly arose around the event, I altered the material to counteract this effect (through repetition, and adding other material, for instance from a film about keeping dogs, and my own leftover footage from the Muehl action number 54 ‘Im Freudenauer Wasser’).’ In film 16 of his anthology Ernst Schmidt Jr. documented the actions of Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Peter Weibel and Oswald Wiener.
by Ernst Schmidt jr.
with Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Oswald Wiener, Dieter Haupt, Anastas, Herbert Stumpfl, Otmar Bauer, Franz Kaltenbäck
Austria 1968 Silent 2’ Colour & Black/White Documentary form

With

  • Günter Brus
  • Otto Muehl
  • Oswald Wiener
  • Dieter Haupt
  • Anastas
  • Herbert Stumpfl
  • Otmar Bauer
  • Franz Kaltenbäck

Crew

Director Ernst Schmidt jr.

Ernst Schmidt jr.

Born in Hadersdorf am Kamp, Austria in 1938, he died in 1988 in Vienna. He trained as a clerk at a commercial college before, between 1961 and 1963, studying at the film school of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He became an independent filmmaker in 1963 and by 1986 had made over 50 short films. As a result of his efforts to establish film groups he met Kurt Kren and Ferry Radax. From 1966 he wrote about film for periodicals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and published numerous theoretical works on avantgarde film. He was a founding member of the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative and a co-founder of both the Grazer Autorenversammlung (1973) and the Austrian Directors’ Association (1979). His extensive estate is managed and researched by the Synema Society for Film and Media in Vienna.

Filmography (selection)

1965 Bodybuilding; short film 1966 15. Mai 1966; short film · Miliz in der Früh; short film 1967 Rotweißrot; short film 1968 Kunst & Revolution; short film · Ja/Nein; short film · Prost; short film · Schnippschnapp; short film · Hell's Angels; short film · Denkakt; short film 1971 Filmisches Alphabet; short film 1977 The Merry Widow; short film · Mein Begräbnis ein Erlebnis; short film 1978 N; short film 1979 Gesammelt von Wendy; short film

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018