A grandmother and her granddaughter baking together at a kitchen table in warm afternoon light

STRATA

DURATION:
74' 53''
DESCRIPTION

A film of philosophical, poetic action, STRATA blends film and performance art to explore the fascinating history of caves as sites of knowledge-making and art creation. Through interdisciplinary processes, artists and researchers investigate the connection between the human body and the geological depth of subsurface environments. The project focuses on the prehistoric caves of the Swabian Jura, where Ice Age humans sought shelter and created the oldest known examples of human figurative sculptures. The caves are the symbiotic realms to dance between embodiment and scrutiny, the unseen and the unforeseen, the oppressed and unspoken, the forgotten and the repressed. Coming together to look into the river of human civilisation and to share what they had found, the artists irradiate concepts of time, ecological intelligence and politics through performances for the camera. The film pinholes a perspective on a world where art, science and multiple perspectives nourish each other in co-creative processes. Nestled inside the dark subsurfaces of the land, the artists confront romantically distorted images of nature and naturalness to dismantle consolidated narratives and aesthetics. The human body and stratified societies are tied in continuity to the geological, beheld through a lens of queer ecology.

CREDITS

By and with Verena Stenke, Andrea Pagnes (VestAndPage), Aldo Aliprandi, Marianna Andrigo, Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Giorgia De Santi, daz disley, Francesca Fini, Nicola Fornoni, Saul Garcia-Lopez, Stephan Knies, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Boris Nieslony, Ralf Peters, PYUR, Douglas Quin, Enok Ripley, Sara Simeoni, Marcel Sparmann, Susanne Weins, Woob. A VestAndPage production, Germany, 2021/24 Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the German Federal Government Commissioner of Culture and the Media. Realized in collaboration with the Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren, Museum Ulm, Cojote Outdoor, EntrAxis e.V., A.P.S. Studio Contemporaneo, Live Arts Cultures.

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An older woman resting in warm sunlight
VestAndPage

Since 2006, German artist Verena Stenke and Venetian-born artist and writer Andrea Pagnes have been working together as VestAndPage internationally in performance art, performance-based film, writing, publishing and temporary artistic community projects.

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