Exhibition: »Remake: Die Vorstadtkrokodile – Hausen Version«

A remake is the re-filming of a filmic artwork. Artistically seen a remake usually is a (re-) interpretation of existing material, but a remake may also refill and redistribute roles of committers and victims within the plot. A remake is an »active acquisition of the language of film.«

In a one-week workshop at the Maria Montessori Elementary School in Stuttgart-Hausen Solitude fellows Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer together with fourth graders will realize a remake of the film »Die Vorstadtkrokodile« (The Suburban Crocodiles). The original version was filmed in 1977, directed by Wolfgang Becker, based on the bestselling children’s book with the same name by Max von der Grün. The film tells the story of the young wheelchair user Kurt who, after initially having experienced strong resistance, finally becomes an important member of the »Suburban Crocodiles« gang.

The workshop not only aims at providing the pupils with technical skills but above all also with a media-critical approach to film. Through play and with material specially conceived of for the workshop the children are encouraged to discover how meaning is constructed in film. The artists want to sensitize the pupils for the montage of the images as well as for the sections chosen by the camera. By means of using props and staging the characters, the children are meant to experience and reflect on how social status is produced and how gaining and losing this status are essential principles of dramatic film production.

By allowing the children to work on all levels of the developing process of a film in the course of this workshop, the artists seek to help the children not to view film as a great, ungraspable piece of art anymore but rather encourage them to acquire this means of expression.

The results of the workshop are on view at the Montessori school from Monday, July 21, 3.30 pm until Wednesday, July 23.

Sylvie Boisseau (*1970 in Paris) and Frank Westermeyer (*1971 in Essen) have been working together since 1996. They realized numerous video works as well as interventions in public space. Selected solo exhibitions: »Chinese is a plus«, 1a Gallery, Hong Kong (2008); »Copy & Paste«, Centre Image Contemporain, Geneva (2006); »Take Care«, ACC Gallery Weimar (2005); Selected group exhibitions: »Video: Düsseldorf/Riga«, Kunstraum, Düsseldorf (2008), ANDREJSALA/LCCA Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga (2008); »Videos by Boisseau & Westermeyer«, Frise, Hamburg (2007); »Sterne aus dem Videopalast«, General Republic, Berlin (2007), Galerie NoD, Prague (2007); »Je est il, Je sont ils?« Centre d’art contemporain de l’Abbaye Saint André, Meymac (2007); »Eroi! Come noi …?« (Heros! Like us …?), Palazzo delle Arti, Napoli, Art_Clips ch.at.de, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (all 2007). The video works of Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer have been shown on the German television channel 3sat and at over 50 festivals in more than 18 countries, where they were awarded numerous prizes. Interventions in public space: »Drive In Meeting Area«, art chêne Biennale d’art en ville, Geneva (2006); »The Trail as a Sculpture of the People«, Weimar (2005); »The Concrete Mailbox – without collection«, Gropiusstadt, Berlin (2004), »Canopy private – public«, Kunstfest Weimar (2003).

The cooperation with the Maria Montessori Elementary School is part of the »Kunststück« program initiated by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Another workshop will take place in the beginning of October with Berlin-based architect Gabi Schillig; further projects are scheduled for next year.

Maria Montessori Schule, Beim Fasanengarten 9, 70499 Stuttgart-Hausen