Yvonne Rainer: Journeys from Berlin/1971

In the organizer's words:

On March 14 and 15, artist and choreographer Alex Baczyński-Jenkins will present Malign Junction (Goodbye, Berlin), his latest work developed for the atrium of the Gropius Bau. A great inspiration for Baczyński-Jenkins is Yvonne Rainer's film Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980), which we are showing as part of a monthly series of events with Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art.

Journeys from Berlin/1971 is a biting, sometimes humorous film about state power, oppression, violence and revolution. The idea was developed by US choreographer and dancer Yvonne Rainer during a stay in Berlin in 1976/1977. The film alternates between aerial shots of British landscapes, intertitles, fragments from Rainer's diary from her youth and the discussion of an invisible couple (spoken by Amy Taubin and Vito Acconci) about the decline of the RAF. The art and film critic Annette Michelson plays a psychoanalysis patient, the filmmaker Cynthia Beatt appears in the Berlin sequences. As part of Arsenal on Location, we are showing the restored version of Journeys from Berlin/1971 in the cinema.

Film: 124 min, original English version

The Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art is a research and educational center, archive, distributor, festival and cinema all in one. With its move from Potsdamer Platz to the silent green Kulturquartier, Arsenal will not have its own movie theater until the new cinema is completed in early 2026. The collaboration with Berlin cultural institutions such as the Gropius Bau, arthouse cinemas and partners of the Arsenal on Location project will help to continue and further expand the cinematic dialog, especially during this time.

Sabeth Buchmann (Berlin/Vienna), art historian and professor of modern and post-modern art history at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is co-editor of PoLYpen - a series on art criticism and political theory (b_books). Most recently published: Art as Infrastructure (2023), Broken Relations: Infrastructure, Aesthetic, and Critique (2022, co-ed.).