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Detroit, Michigan St.Petersburg, Russia EXCERPT 2 > |
GARDEN STORIES
Looking for the country in the city
2003 DVCam/Digibeta 52min
Produced by PvHFilm
Director of Photography: Stef Tijdink
Sound: Rik Meier
SoundMix: Wart Wamsteker
Written, directed and edited by Boris Gerrets
SYNOPOSIS:
The film is a playful investigation into the relationship between the urban and the rural - that is to say: how the communitarian mentality of the village tries to survive and/or resurrect itself within an urban environment through food production. Switching between St.Petersburg, Russia and Detroit, USA, the film shows people in their urban gardens against the background of the breakdown of the great ideologies of the last century: industrial capitalism and communism. Whether it is on a small plot of land, a rooftop, or an empty lot, these urban gardeners grow their own food right in the city.
Modern man's only alternative is to emerge once more into the light and have the courage, not to escape to the moon, but to return to his own human center – and to master the bellicose compulsions and irrationalities he shares with his rulers and mentors. He must not only unlearn the art of war, but acquire and master, as never before, the arts of life. The City in History,Lewis Mumford (1961)
STILLS FROM GARDEN STORIES:
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SCREENINGS:
2011
6 ème Ateliers d'artistes Chateau de Sacy. Sacy-le-Petit, France
Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna, Austria
Filmforum NRW, Köln, Germany
2010
Wienstation, Urban Gardening & Pocket Films... Vienna, Austria,
DocTALK – TV screening Het Gesprek, digital TV channel Netherlands,
Bauhaus Dessau, Symposium zur IBA-Themenwoche Landschaft "Landschaft schafft Stadt", Dessau, Germany
Chateau de Sacy, Exubérance, Sacy-le-Petit, France
2009
Studio.b Formfehler, Nürnberg, Germany
PRO ARTE Foundation 3 Peter and Paul Fortress, St Petersburg, Russia
'Foodprint', STROOM den Haag, Netherlands
2008
CUBE / Liverpool: RENEW Rooms, Manchester, U
Deutsches Architekturmuseum DAM (German Architecture Museum) Frankfurt, Germany
Museum am Ostwall / Duisburg, Liebfrauenkirche, Dortmund, Germany
Pro Arte Institute, in collaboration with the State Museum of History St. Petersburg, Russia
Moscow Architecture Biennial, Zentralny dom chudoschnika (Central House of the Artist) Moscow, Russia
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, Berlin, Germany
2007
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) USA
Art Gallery Rousse, Ruse, Bulgaria
Pratt Manhattan Gallery Van Alen Institute, New York, USA
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills / Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Detroit USA
Studio Dauhaus - independent art space, Sofia, Bulgaria
SPACES Gallery and Cleveland Urban Design Center, Cleveland, USA
Akihabara UDX Building, Akihabara Square, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Nederlands Film Festival, Dutch Film Festival (Special Selection Programme)
Utrecht, Netherlands
Train Station, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (GfZK), Halle-Neustadt, Germany
Biennale di Venezia: a contribution to the 10th International Biennial of Architecture, Venice, Italy
2005
Nederlands Film Festival, Dutch Film Festival Utrecht, Netherlands
CCnet University of Toronto, Canada
2004
Festival Cinéma Nordique Rouen, France
Kunstraum München, Germany
TV screening donderdagdocumentaire, public broadcast, IKON, Netherlands
Kunstwerke - Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kultur (ZfzK), Halle / Leipzig, Germany
"Shrinking Cities (2004 to 2005) I + II" Videoarchive Berlin, Halle/Saale, and Leipzig, Germany
