Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

As in previous works, the video which is based on found-footage, deals with the construction of female identity, as well as with the portrayal of pictorial details, the interpretation of the specifics of a dramaturgic scene and the relevant film scenography. Things which within the context of film history are already ?embedded? in the film material and could thus be overlooked, are brought to the forefront. Paradoxically the supposed confessional referred to by the artist is described as having an open curtain, in contrast to the usual situation in the Catholic Church where its confessional booths consist of a dividing wall and a curtain. The curtain has long been regarded as being at the beginning, an item which veils and conceals. In the baroque and bourgeois theatre of the 18th century it is accorded a particular power, which gives it an active role. Not only does it announce the play, it becomes a figure itself, with its folds, movements and shades of colour, ranging from opaque to transparent. In Cortiňas? work the curtain turns into the central figure with its individual sounds, sweeping size and physical characteristics. In front of it and behind it are blonde women, allowing the viewer only to look over their shoulders. Cortiňas utilizes this motif from Romanticism which permits the female figures to be made anonymous as well as be typified, seeming to merge into one. Alongside the women we gaze out of the window into the distance, into the past, into the future, celebrate the nostalgic image of the romantic idea of inner freedom and are halted by the rasping voice of a mature woman: Every woman has a career ? the career of being a woman. Cortiňas approach to the re-enactment of the longings of her mostly female heroines, who reveal their supposed confessions in a collage of sounds, and in excerpts, is accompanied by an aesthetic reflection, in the sense of an ?atmospheric? perception. The pictorial-compositional and narrative excerpts which occur simultaneously provoke us into completing the ellipses in the visual and the content. Through the distance to the usual cinema experience ? the linear dramaturgy is constantly interrupted both on the levels of image and sound ? Cortiňas confronts the viewer with completely different versions of the individual motifs. She creates a layer of desires, most of which turn out to be unrealistic. The goal as an endless pipe-dream.

ELI CORTIÑAS Born 1976 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/Spain. Lives and works in Berlin and Cologne/ Germany. 2003-2008 Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Prof. Matthias Müller, Prof. Marcel Odenbach 2001-2002 European Film College, DK AWARDS / GRANTS 2011 Shortlist Award for young Film Art, Freunde der Neuen National Galerie und Deutsche Filmakademie 2009 Promotion Prize NRW 2009 for Media Art, Düsseldorf/ Germany Winner of the 19th Art Students Competition by the States Department for Education and Research, Kunst- u. Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik, Bonn/ Germany Short List Nomination for the Columbus Art Foundation Project, Leipzig/ Germany 2nd Price NRW Competition at the International Filmfestival Oberhausen/ Germany 2008 Nominated for the German Short film Award in Gold for experimental film, Berlin/ Germany 2005 Promotion Price of the Big Art Exhibition North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf/ Germany 2001 Grant from the Film foundation MSH, Lübeck/ Germany EXHIBITIONS 2011 Street Girls Bringing Sailors In Must Pay In Advance I + II, Michael Wiesehöfer Gallery/ Haus Im Süden, Cologne/ Germany Dorothea, Ancient & Modern Gallery, London Based Around Babusch, Babusch Art Project, Berlin What a pity, it was indeed a great city, Van Bau Gallery, Vestfossen, Norway The New Rhineland. The Post-ironic Generation, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen/ Germany (C) BIWAK III, Eli Cortiñas, Jürgen von Dückerhoff, Diango Hernández, Alexander Lieck, Anthony McCall, Thom Merrick, Richard Allen Morris, Trevor Paglen, Peter Piller, Thomas Zander Gallery, Schmidt Maczollek Gallery, Michael Wiesehöfer Gallery, Cologne/ Germany 2010 Hypercinema!, Les Rencontres Internationales, Centre Pompidou, Paris/ France (C) The New Rhineland. The Post-ironic Generation, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen/ Germany (C) Saw it & Loved it # 4: Saw it, Loved it # 4: 
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From young collections, Museum Ludwig, Cologne/ Germany New Positions, Art Cologne, solo booth, Michael Wiesehöfer Gallery, Cologne/ Germany (C) (Solo) The excitement of ownership, Waldburger Gallery, Brussels/ Belgium (Solo) The sky is burning, 6 positions towards collage, Rupert Pfab Gallery, Düsseldorf/ Germany 2009 Liste Basel, Basel/ Switzerland (C) (Solo) Dial M for Mother, Michael Wiesehöfer Gallery, Cologne/Germany (Solo) Footloose, Waldburger Gallery, Brussels/ Belgium Moon Star Love, Marcelle Alix Gallery, Paris/ France +10/ Shortlist Columbus Art Foundation Project, Halle 14, Spinnerei Leipzig/ Germany (C) Regarding Düsseldorf 4, Düsseldorf/ Germany (C) Art Students Competition Exhibition, Kunst- u. Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik, Bonn/ Germany (C) 2008 Cinéma Revisité, Centre Pompidou, Paris/ France (C) Documental: Contemporary Video Art from Europe, Guggenheim Gallery, L.A./ U.S.A. 13. Marler Video Art Price, Glaskasten Marl, Marl/ Germany (C) Lies. Nowhere. Between fiction and reality, exhibition screening, Museum for Contemporary Art Münster, Münster/ Germany (C) Recently seen and admired, Kunstagenten Gallery, Berlin/ Germany Minus Eins, Minus Eins experimental Lab, curated by Mischa Kuball, Cologne/ Germany Family Matters, Gallery NB8, Oslo/ Norway Zur Zeit, Künstlerhaus Bregenz, Palais Thurn & Taxis, Bregenz/ Austria There will be no funeral, e*raum, Cologne/ Germany (Solo) 2007 Rettung ohne Untergang, Deutzer Brücke, Cologne/ Germany CROPPED, Figge von Rosen Gallery, Cologne/ Germany 2006 Exhibition due to Promotion Price of the Big Art Exhibition North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf/ Germany (C) 2005 Köln Kunst 7, Cologne/ Germany (C) 5. Augsburger Art Lab (LAB 30), Augsburg/ Germany Guten Tag: Auf Wiedersehen, Rutgers Arts Center, New Jersey/ U.S.A. SCREENINGS 2011 Xperimenta, Xcèntric, CCCB, Barcelona (November 2011) IFFF Dortmund, Espressofilm, Viena, Austria 2008 ? 2011 Les Rencontres Internationales, Paris, Madrid, Berlin 2009 Norwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad/ Norway Reel to Real, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main/ Germany ZKMax showroom: Passage Maximilianstrasse, Landeshauptstadt München Kulturreferat in cooperation with ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, München/ Germany 2008 CINÉMA REVISITÉ Centre Pompidou Paris/ France Int. Women Film Festival Dortmund, Panorama section, Dortmund, Cologne/ Germany "LUX" Max Ophüls Price, Experimental Film / Video, Saarbrücken/ Germany Short Cuts Cologne, Cologne/ Germany 2007 LOOP, video art fair, Barcelona/ Spain European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück/ Germany Int. Short Film Festival, Oberhausen/ Germany L´Alternativa, Barcelona/ Spain 2006 XXX Forum ? Video Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne/ Germany Geladen: Videokunst", Junge Kunstfreunde, Museum Ludwig, Cologne/ Germany "Traveller auf Reise wohnen", Galerie Sammler, Leipzig/Germany 2003 Oldenburg Film Week, Oldenburg/ Germany Filmfest Augenweide, Kiel/G Germany Int. Leipzig Festival for Documentary & Animated Film, (Competition), Leipzig/ Germany Film Tournee Unterwegs, Germany 2002 Feminale, Cologne/ Germany Nordic Film Week, Lübeck/ Germany Mediawave, Ungarn Int. Women?s Film Festival, Seoul/ Korea CURRENT PUBLICATIONS/ PRESS ?TWIN ? Cinematic New Talents: Eli Cortiñas, Conrad Ventur, Angelika Markul and Ruth Hinkel-Pevzner ? by Freire Barnes, TWIN-Factory ,London, UK. ?Despite moments of clarity there is no ism in this book: 100 New Artists?, by Francesca Gavin, Laurence King Publishing, London, UK., coming out: September 2011 ?RISING: Young Emerging Artists?, by Julia Ritterskamp u.a., Herausgeber: Daab Verlag, Erscheinungstermin: Mai/ Juni 2011 GQ MAGAZINE, British Edition, ?Up and Coming Artists? by George Daniell, May 2011 MONOPOL, 1/2011 January, ?Komisch: Leverkusen predigt Postironie und die Generationsschublade klemmt?, Alexandra Wach, S.95 (http://www.monopol-magazin.de/drucken/artikel/2337/) Welt am Sonntag, 28. November 2010, ?Die neue rheinische Ehrlichkeit?, Christiane Hoffmans, S.48 MOFF ? Artists Magazine, 2/2010, ?Eli Cortiñas?, S.30-34 (C= Catalogue)