Dasein und Wohnform

 
Peter Weiss in Copenhagen

 

21 May 13

 

Peter Weiss, Bag de ens facader, 1960, Filmstill
Peter Weiss, Bag de ens facader, 1960, Filmstill

 

Lecture and screening by Florian Wüst.
The artist, writer and stage author Peter Weiss was based in Copenhagen between July and December of 1960, where he produced a documentary about living conditions in modern new buildings on behalf of the Statens Filmcentral.

Though he worked as a filmmaker throughout the 1950's, Bag de ens Facader (Behind the Facades) is the last film Weiss made, before he had his literary break-through with the publication of Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers (Shadows of the body of the Coachman) by Suhrkamp Verlag. The largely unknown film was available until now only in the Danish original, and was digitalized exclusively for this evening in KW's series Raum Denken. Florian Wüst will present and discuss the new version of Bag de ens Facader in relation to the architectural and urban discourse of the 1950's and 60's, as well as against the backdrop of the personal and artistic crisis that Weiss encountered during the shooting of the film.

With thanks to the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen.