It is with deceptive simplicity that Peter Tscherkassky embarks on his filmic voyage to regions of desire found in sexualized cinema: A naked couple from a 1960s nudist film climbs aboard a small sailboat, gliding over darkly tinged waters alongside a rocky coastline before stumbling on an isolated beach where a sleeping beauty lays. It takes nearly four minutes to arrive at this juncture before Tscherkassky blows his fuses in characteristic style. Images begin to flicker and tremble, intermingling and superimposing, nervously shimmering between positive and negative, diving headlong into over-, under-, and multiple exposures, split screens, and distortion effects. The title of The Exquisite Corpus not only refers to the surrealist method of artmaking called cadavre exquis, but also tips its hat to the colloquial German term for a fine funeral or “schöne Leiche” – photochemical cinema is almost an anachronism in this day and age.
The Exquisite Corpus
The Exquisite Corpus
No physical screenings scheduled. |
- Direction: Peter Tscherkassky
- Music: Dirk Schaefer
- Format: 35mm
- Color: B/W
- Production Country: Austria
- Production Year: 2015
- Duration: 19΄
- Contact: sixpackfilm
- Awards/Distinctions: Illy Prize Special Mention – Cannes 2015, Silver Hugo for Live Action Short – Chicago IFF 2015, Night Award – Bangkok Signs of the Night FF 2015
Concept & Realization: Peter Tscherkassky
Supported by: Land Niederösterreich, BKA. Kunst
The screening is not recommended to viewers with a history of photosensitive epilepsy
Peter Tscherkassky
Peter Tscherkassky has been making films since 1979. His films received more than fifty awards including Golden Gate Award (San Francisco), Main Prize at Oberhausen, and Best Short Film at the Venice International Film Festival. He studied philosophy. His dissertation was titled Film as Art (1986). He organized several film festivals and curated countless film programs. Since 1984, he has written numerous essays on avant-garde films. He is the editor of the book Peter Kubelka (1995). He co-founded sixpackfilm (1991). 2005: World premiere of Instructions for A Light And Sound Machine at the Cannes Film Festival. Since 2006, he has presented numerous exhibitions of his Film Strips Light Boxes in several countries. In 2010, Coming Attractions had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. He is the editor of the book Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-Garde Cinema, published in 2012. In 2015, The Exquisite Corpus had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. From 2018 to 2021, a series of concerts with newly composed soundtracks for his CinemaScope trilogy was performed by Ensemble Nikel, in Darmstadt, Utrecht, Graz, New York, Tel Aviv, Paris, Metz, Brussels, and Copenhagen. In 2019, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit from the City of Vienna. In 2021, Train Again has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2021, the double-vinyl-LP Dirk Schaefer: Peter Tscherkassky, All the Soundtracks (2005–2021) was released on the label purge.
Filmography
1981 Blood-Letting (short)
1982 Erotique (short)
1982 Film of Love (short)
1983 Freeze Frame (short)
1983 Holiday Film (short)
1983 Miniatures – Many Berlin Artists in Hoisdorf (short)
1984 Ballett 16 (short)
1984 Motion Picture (La sortie des Ouvrier de l’Usine Lumiére á Lyon) (short)
1985 Manufracture (short)
1986 kelimba (short) 1
987 Shot-Countershot (shot)
1992 Parallel Space: Inter-View (short)
1996 Happy-End (short)
1997 L'Arrivée (short)
1999 Get Ready (short)
1999 Outer Space (short)
2001 Dream Work (short)
2005 Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (short)
2006 Nachtstueck (Nocturne) (short)
2010 Coming Attractions (short)
2015 The Exquisite Corpus (short)
2021 Train Again (short)
