Eisenhüttenstadt – Plansequenz für eine Planstadt

Film 2021, 28 min, color, 16:9, HD, stereo

Concept/directors Gruppe AGS (Diana Artus, Stefanie Gaus, Volker Sattel) Steadycam Thilo Schmidt Sound recording and design Stefanie Gaus, Volker Sattel Poster edition Gruppe AGS Accompanying text Diana Artus Funded by Kunstverein Kloster Neuzelle / Eisenhüttenstadt – Zwischen Modell und Museum (exhibition and symposium)

„In its character as a model, the planned city of Eisenhüttenstadt is a precisely composed space. But its ideological foundation, the idea of an alternative way of life in a socialist society, seems obsolete today. With this work the group AGS is looking for a potential of free appropriation and contemplation within the built ideology of the model city, which today is conserved as a monument. In order to record the contrast of planning and deviation, the cinematic project embodies this contrast in its own structure. In a precisely framed take, a slow tracking shot traverses the city. The ride follows the trails that have emerged in the city alongside the planned walkways, streets, sidewalks, and garden paths, connecting or complementing them. As the planning of the ride connects with the structure of the city, a contrast appears with what the camera actually encounters, what appears as image. This creates a parallel to cinematic narration: the planned sequence of a film is staged according to a devised, meticulously composed choreography. But it is only the intrusion of the unplannable that turns it into a successful shot.“ (Niklas Nitschke, Kunstverein Kloster Neuzelle)

The film incorporates names of different statues in the public space of Eisenhüttenstadt. Its presentation in the context of the symposium „Between modell and museum“ (Eisenhüttenstadt, August 2021) was accompanied with a series of announcement posters wallpapered within the city, and a poetic text written by Diana Artus. Images and text were published in the catalog of the symposium.