Women Cinemakers meets
Désirée Meul & Laura Ferrara Living and working in Berlin and Zurich
Désirée: With a background in graphic design and contemporary dance I am interested in observing and enlarging the physical abilities of the human body from different disciplines through transdisciplinary approaches. The human perspective is the only perspective we can observe the world from. In the center of this perception lies the human body with its experiences. Since 2007 I have realized various projects in collaboration with other artists in the field of performance art, dance and digital arts. I follow up different artistic practices such as performing, coding and designing. I try not to establish myself though an artistic “handwriting”, it’s much more about positioning myself within encounters with other artists through dialogue. I am challenging myself with ideas and contents of the vis-à-vis and nourishing them with my personal experiences. The form and content is depending on those encounters and can be pretty diverse. His left hand is close to the body is a perfect example: Laura and I were brining into the discourse each individual interests and we were working out the common ground to find a shared artistic transformation. We share a common interest in exploring art as research in order to understand certain social structures through art making. Laura: While working as an artist and educator, I developed strong interest in approaching sociological and anthropological topics. I tell stories through visual means with different narrative techniques. My works are often guided by questions as: How can stories be leaded by means of cinematic anthologies, contrasts and montage to questions of cultural issues? Which possibilities do visual forms of expression offer to analyze complex issues? In which ways are forms of representation and structures of power indicated in culture artifacts? I share the opinion of Désirée towards her own work. Not to bring a „handwriting“ into the art field but to be in a constant dialogue within different medias, topics and people. I have the strong feeling we have to overcome individualistic work but instead to cross-link in bigger communities and contexts.
An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com
is a captivating performance video created by Laura
Ferrara and Désirée Meul: exploring the political value conveyed by gestures in sports, their work address the viewers to such heightened and multilayered experience, to unveil the linguistic nature of the movement of human body. Featuring essential approach to composition and