Ulla Von Brandenburg visits Aarhus

Artist Ulla Von Brandenburg recently visited Aarhus to attend Kunsthallen for her exhibition next year as part of the capital of culture celebrations in 2017. Von Brandenburg is a leading figure within the new generation of artists in performing arts - her work is characterised by the wide variety of mediums she uses and her almost entirely unedited films, often taken in just one shot.  

Her work can be found in many prestigious international collections, including the Musée national d’art moderne/Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Tate Modern (London), the Kunsthalle of Hamburg and the Mamco / Musée national d’art moderne et contemporain, Genève, and next year Kunsthallen in Aarhus.

Von Brandenburg is not a classical artist, working in the studio, instead she says she uses a different approach by reacting to spaces.

“I don‘t like the idea that something is limited,” she explains, “it doesn’t interest me.” Von Brandenburg bases a lot of her work on theatre, literature and even opera. She doesn’t refer to herself as a specialist, instead as someone who is interested in many different materials and mediums. “When I have an idea, I try to find the perfect medium to make it.”

Next year in Kunsthallen she will show the film It Has a Golden Yellow Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, which Aarhus 2017 helped produce. The film has already been shown in Melbourne and is now being screened in Toronto and Montreal. Von Brandenburg creates a side specific installation for each venue for the film, which mirrors the structure of the film. She clarified how it’s important for her to design a special space for the screening of the film in Kunsthallen in Aarhus .

Her films are usually shot in black and white and matched with a colour installation but this film is her first colour film. In the film she plays with different colour combinations, such as different coloured fabrics in the size of the human body. She believes every colour has a meaning in history, and a certain impact on us. The film is therefore focused on the vibrancy of colour and she strived to make the image as pure as possible to highlight the colours in the film.

The film consists of five main topics, or ‘chapters’: stairs, movement, textile, ritual and colour. Von Brandenburg said in this film she wanted to work with something more abstract and therefore chose to work with dancers.The film is about a transformation in life and is reminiscent of Greek theatre. It is focused on acommunity or a group of people who do not really know why they have been brought together. Through them Von Brandenburg analyses the power relations between people, through a variety of mini-stories throughout the film.

Another interesting fact about her film is that it was shot in one take and the golden yellow colour is used to hide the ‘cut’ when the camera follows the actors instead of cutting between the three parts of the film.

Von Brandenburg says this makes the film closer to theatre and performance, made more realistic with the removal of professional editing. The outcome means that the film was produced in around the same amount of time as it takes the audience to watch the production.

Von Brandenburg concludes that she is not inventing anything new with this style, all the material and forms she uses already exists: “I am using all these incredible things, it is more about mixing them all together.”