IT HAS A GOLDEN SUN AND AN ELDERLY GREY MOON
IT HAS A GOLDEN SUN AND AN ELDERLY GREY MOON
Digital video converted from super-16-mm film, colour, sound, 22’00’’ – 2016
We find ourselves submerged in the world of Ulla von Brandenberg (1974), who has been building a world between reality and illusion, past and present, sacred and profane, through installation, film, performance and painting.
“It has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Gray Moon” is Ulla von Brandenburg’s first film dedicated to colour. Filmed on the main stage at Théâtre de Nanterre-Amandiers in a single take with no editing, this is “a film that dances”. “The initial idea was to make a color movie, unlike my previous work. From the moment the color came into one of my films, I decided that the film would be dedicated to it. The dancers are in a white space, each raising a fabric dyed with a vivid color.” The stage consists of two white stairs that rise to a platform. The figure of the “staircase” is a recurring theme in the artistic language of Ulla von Brandenburg: sometimes overturned in its architectural spaces, is also the first step of the narrative. In this film, the ladder is a way of representing, physically and symbolically, the power relations between men and the hierarchies of authority.
This is the first film in which Ulla von Brandenburg engages dancers in her work. They manipulate the dyed fabrics and both cloths and colors become the themes of their interactions and ceremonies. Their movement evokes the memory of ancient rituals and their bodies are vectors of instinctive rhythms – a kind of collective consciousness that brings to mind the choreographic forms of eurythmy and modern Expressionist dance.
