Movies by Matthias Müller, Liisa Roberts, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Beat Streuli

Matthias Müller: »Alpsee« [1994/2002, Video, 13:55 min]
Liisa Roberts: »9 Minutes of a form. A Sculpture, Liisa Roberts,
Helsinki, March, 1993. For Carlos Basualdo« [1993, 16 mm]
Ann-Sofi Sidén: »QM, I think I call her QM« [1997, Video, 28 min]
Beat Streuli: »Allen Street II 5-29-94« [1994, Video, 45 min]

»Alpsee« is the first film in which Matthias Müller has combined his experimental-surrealistic montage of found-footage material with the conventional narration of a story in feature film scenes. While the film contains scenes that are shot in exact accordance with a screenplay, it also incorporates film material from Müller’s father’s private archives as well as selected scenes from the TV series, Fury and Lassie. The purpose of these latter scenes is to support the narration. The use of TV images removes the private, self-contained character of the narration and places what is being said in the context of a collective memory.

Throughout Liisa Roberts’ film, »9 Minutes of Form«, a person’s right hand can be seen writing continuously in a section of the picture. The written words are out of focus and cannot be read by the audience. Writing a long text on good quality paper has become a very intimate act in times of accelerated communication. Roberts uses the illegibility of the writing to confront the viewers with their unsatisfied curiosity about the content of the written words. Her intention is to provoke a new way of looking at sculpture as an artistic category. 

»Qm, I Think I Call Her QM« by Ann-Sofi Sidén from Sweden is a film that blends central themes in her work, e.g. reason that believes it can control desire; the construction of the subject through social surveillance and control; the drawing of borders between normality and madness; and the social definition of what is feminine. 

In his video, »Allen Street II 5-29-94«, Beat Streuli focuses the audience’s attention on part of a street in New York’s Lower East Side. The camera, which remains fixed throughout the recording, appears to be capturing normal events on the street. It dispenses with any kind of dramatization and the authentic scenes it records give viewers the chance to observe things they would normally overlook in everyday life.