discoteca flaming star

2008, 6 1/2  min

a film by Wolfgang Mayer starring Teresa Barrio Traspaderne, Elvira Barrio Traspaderne, Michael Mahalchick. 

Music „AACB/BDAC“ performed by DFS (Guiomar Arjona Lopez, CGB, Tom Früchtl, Edith Mirwald, WM)

Two girls practice a strange ballet choreography, repeatedly. Mahalchick-Jesus-as-a-biker is grinding his teeth. Overlapping this ingenuous performances for the camera is AC/DC´s Big balls performed parallel with ABBA’s Thank you for the music. Inspired by a vaguely satanic idea of Mahalchick.

2007, 5 1/2 min

A film by DFS, starring Maren Maurer. 

Music performed by DFS (Bene Abel, CGB, WM) over Ravel „Pavane pour une Infante défunte“ filmed at General Public, Berlin on „New Tribune“ by Rita McBride & Manuel Graf.

Between dream, interiority and loneliness. White Falda is a dancer and a princess who plays the space, trying exercises in beauty and self entertainment with her gestures and clothes. Next to Ravel´s „… Dead Princess“ appears „Briganti“, an ancient Neapolitan song of protest and opposition to power.

2007, 5 min

A film by DFS, based on found footage from the collection of Mark Newgarden. 

Music by Michael Schultze

A woman dances crazily. She is holding a chicken and has a mirror in front of her face.  Presumably located on a roof  top in Brooklyn with the city in the background. To provide a new context to the found footage through editing, electronic dance music drags the dancer into a contemporary evocation.

2004-05, 3 1/2 min

Nudity for Peace: Performance/dinner by CGB & WM at the studio of Johannes Raether in Paris. Camera: Javier Ruiz Gomez + ? & Mechanical Dance: Choreographie/improvisation/proposition for 4 dancers: Erik Göngrich, Jared Gradinger, Gudrun Herrbold, Laurie Young. Camera: by CGB & WM. Soundtrack: „Lili Marlin“ („Lili Marleen“ sung in its arab translation) performed by DFS (Bene Abel, CGB, WM)

Two performances were entwined in this film.“Nudity for Peace“ is a memory of a moment in protest culture. Performed as a non-frontal restaging of the „bed-in“ by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, conflating this with the famous image of them being naked at Ringo Starr’s basement apartment.  „Mechanical Dance“ shows trained and untrained bodies moving like lively machinery.

„Lili Marleen“  is based on a poem written in 1915 by Hans Leip, supplemented by the poet in 1935. It was first put to music for the singer Lale Andersen by the composer and Hindemith-student Rodolf Zink in 1937. In opposition to the popular taste of the time Zink had chosen a lyrical interpretation over a martial one. The song had at that point no outstanding success. In 1938, Norbert Schultze, known for compositions like „Führer befiehl wir folgen dir“ and „Bomben gegen Engeland“ set a second time the poem to music. Using a „subtle march rhythm“ this version became probably the most successful song of the 20th century, being translated into more then 40 languages by the end of WW 2. Although the war was held in places where Arabic was the mother tongue, for reasons unknown, the lyrics were never translated into Arabic.

2004, 3 Min

A film by FP Boué and DFS

Music: DFS (Bene Abel, CGB, WM) performing “Whenever Contigo”. A Bossa-Nova-Torch interpretation in english/spanish, of Shakiras number 1 Hit. The vampires: CGB, WM

As an attempt of a nonsensical abstinence two vampire lovers try to overcome their bloodthirstiness by eating a beautifully decorated cake. Alienated in an absurd conflict of desire they poke and bite into the torte. Pleasure mixed with pain, in a depiction of adaptation. 

2004, 4 min

A film by Wolfgang Mayer, starring Alison Fleminger, Alena Williams. 

Music performed by DFS (CGB, Susan Oetgen, Tom Früchtl, WM) over Pascal Comelade „Sardana dels Desemparats“

Grotesque empathy. Looking at someone that is looking back. Glances are returned. Evoking the sculpture „Kronprinzessin Luise und Prinzessin Friederike“ (J.G. Schadow, 1797) to create a ghostly alignment of the 4 women. Ode to the beautiful, a beautiful which is always threatened.

2002, 4 min 10 sec

A film by Wolfgang Mayer, starring Cristina Gómez Barrio. 

Music performed by DFS (Bene Abel, CGB)

A woman is switching on and off different light bulbs in a dark space. She walks and rambles without destiny and purpose, down stairs, over a terrace, close to a pool. She returns. A former dance-song that became a torch-song accompanies her movement.

2012….returning….10 years later

4 min fragment of a performance for the camera, recorded on April 20, 1999

DFS: Guiomar Arjona Lopez (drums), CGB (bass), WM (vocals), Edith Mirwald (guitar). Camera: Birgit Kramer

A 60 minutes performance for the camera where DFS interprets „in a loop“ the song/credo Man in Black by Johnny Cash. There is no hierarchy in the represented. Everything being depicted is of equal importance. In a scenario similar to a band-rehearsal-space the band plays non-stop while the camera sweeps and rambles through the action, turning the situation somehow into an act of hypnosis.

2002, 7 min
Starring Laurie Young, CGB , WM.
Music „In Every Dreamhome a Heartache“ performed by DFS (Bene Abel, CGB, WM, Michael Schultze)

An absurd situation of solitary playing. A beautiful girl, dressed with a swimsuit, attempts to dive in a bathtub. This action becomes a never-ending game of introspective movements and circles. The accompanying song suggests multiple connections/meanings to „modern consumption“ and the permanent quest for satisfaction, describing very precisely the desire-dependency relation (cost-performance ratio) between a person and a commodity. „Inflatable doll/My role is to serve you/Disposable darling/cant throw you away now“. At the moment where the music shifts to a kind of orgasmic ending, the image of the dancer is replaced by two vampires, trying to kiss and suck each other, all attempts in vain.

In Every Dreamhome a Heartache (Roxy Music)

Prologue
In every dream home a heartache >take stock
And every step I take >announcement of futility
Takes me further from heaven >bliss removes
Is there a heaven? >maybe there is no bliss
I’d like to think so >supposition

Chapter 1:
Standards of living >take stock (more specific)
They’re rising daily >progress
But home oh sweet home >domestic bliss (home versus heaven)
It’s only a saying >lack of reflection. tradition
From bell push to faucet >anal perfection as compensation
In smart town apartment >funny smartness
The cottage is pretty >pretty as stupid
The main house a palace >petit bourgeois dream
Penthouse perfection >final confusion of house/heaven
But what goes on. What to do there. Better pray there >polemic reference to that confusion (first comment after the description)

Inserted caption:
Open plan living. Bungalow ranch style. All of its comforts. Seem so essential

Chapter 2:
I bought you mail order >postmodern consumption
My plain wrapper baby >the promise incarnate
Your skin is like vinyl >the perfect surface better than its natural surrogate
The perfect companion >goal
You float my new pool >radical fusion with the previous
Deluxe and delightful >fulfillment. filling
Inflatable doll >become aware of the object
My role is to serve you >the thing retires from promising and starts to demand
Disposable darling >revelation as contemptuous throw-away + affect
Can’t throw you away now >captivity (comparable with “el angel exterminador” by Bunuel)
Immortal and life size >monstrous growth
My breath is inside you >become aware of the infused life
I’ll dress you up daily >retarding play instinct. dottiness
And keep you till death sighs >memento mori. seclude o.s. from the spiral of excitement
Inflatable doll >admiration (as result of realization)
Lover ungrateful >the drama of unrequited love and the fear of the radical independency of the lover. anger and excitement
I blew up your body >I gave you life or I have mistaken you
But you blew my mind >you gave me heaven or you gave me my place in the world >>orgasm<<

Epilogue: Oh Those Heartaches Dream home Heartaches >waves of orgasm / afterpains