March 29–June 23, 2019
Years of Construction
Commissioned for the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Heinz Emigholz’s architectural film, made from 2013 to 2018 captures the process of constructing a new museum building on Mannheim’s central Friedrichsplatz. The beginning of the film documents the demolition of the extension added to the renovated art nouveau building in the 1980s along with the air-raid bunker beneath. After this, the film’s focus is the new building, designed by gmp – Architekten von Gerkan, Marg & Partners. From excavating the foundation pit right up to the first exhibition in the new building, Emigholz’s film compares before and after in a packed 93 minutes.
Years of Construction begins and ends with images of the city of Mannheim, where the Kunsthalle Mannheim was founded in 1909 as one of the first civic museums of European modernism. Over 100 years later, Emigholz observes its material and spiritual transformation in his first long-term project, his camera tracing five years of construction. His lens wanders through spaces and openings in the emerging museum architecture, always returning to the city outside the museum. The independent-minded experimental filmmaker depicts Kunsthalle Mannheim as an extension of urban space, made from different materials and following its own laws. Years of Construction celebrated its world premiere at the international Berlinale film festival on February 11, 2019. At Kunsthalle Mannheim, it will premiere as a seven-channel projection, accompanied by two other Emigholz films: Streetscapes [Dialogue] (2017) and The Basis of Make-Up (from 1983). The cinematic version of the film Years of Construction can be viewed in the old library of the art nouveau building.
About the artist:
Heinz Emigholz studied philosophy and literature in Hamburg and set up the film company Pym Films in 1978. Between 1993 and 2013, after working in New York for some years, he established and developed the Department of Experimental Filmmaking at the University of the Arts Berlin. Since 2012, the artist, who has won various international film prizes, has been a member of the Academy of Arts Berlin.
Sponsored by the H.W. & J. Hector Foundation.
A project by Heinz Emigholz on behalf of Kunsthalle Mannheim.
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