Fokus: Veitstanz/Feixtanz (Performance)

In the organizer's words:

PERFORMANCE at Filmforum NRW (Open Air)

St. Vitus Dance/Festive Dance
Gabriele Stötzer
GDR | 1988 | short film | 25'
Ecstatically twitching bodies: the phenomenon of St. Vitus' dance dates back to the Middle Ages, when people danced in public until they lost consciousness. In 1988, 13 women and men in Erfurt practiced it to the point of ecstasy. The different bodies suggest that we are all able to move as we wish in public spaces. Gabriele Stötzer defies the dreary GDR setting to create her own space that goes back to the pagan and evokes matriarchal origins. Her source is resistance. "This film, which was shot in the GDR - the land of socialist dictatorship - is an expression of the freedom that is inherent in all of us, if we take it," says Gabriele Stötzer.

To give the work maximum freedom, we are projecting it in a public space with the cathedral in the background and a friendly invitation to dance along.

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