Minutes Films

Helvetia, December 1799

The Russian officer

who impregnated an unconscious woman,

(and who in the virtue of a notice in a newspaper will later

give himself up to his fate),

The Marquise von O.,

is moving together with his group of cavalry

on New Year´s Eve 1799 across the mountain passes

towards Chur /

 

Only recently

did Suworow´s army,

to which the Russian belonged,

stand in front of Zurich /

 

General Alexander Suworow (1730-1800)

 

Grisons´ steady,

ice-covered mountains look

over the rapid changes in Europe /



“Attack on a thick door of glass” / 2018

Brief hesitation before using violence

against objects /

The experienced party member,

aide to the previous chair of the Socialist German Student League

notices in astonishment

the crowd of comrades that has been lingering for several minutes

in front of the VC´s office door

They don´t want to destroy

the valuable pane of thick glass,

though they do want to enter the office

“in order to occupy it” /

Several comrades

pressed up against the office door

suddenly have a battering ram in their hands /

The pane of the

office door shatters /



Greetings to Athens!

On 5 May 1818

 

Top centre:

Ovid

* 5 May 1818 in Trier † 14 March 1883

 

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!

 

Working class housing in London around 1818

 

Here round about me lie the bodies of my friends,

but the victory was ours /

The victory was ours, but here round about

lie the bodies of my friends / Heinrich Heine, from Hymn 1844    



Timbuktu 1799

Timbuktu, 31.12.1799/

 

The patrol, arrived the week before,

of French Cuirassiers,

whose corselets, loaded on  mules,

which followed the horses,

came together for a feast.

 

The revolution might have been lost in Paris

but it can

rise up anew anytime

in Africa /

 

The troops carry books,

all of them novels. 



“Revolution is a living creature full of surprises“

 Top left:

“Disruption!” “Everything flows”

Revolution / Upheaval / Radical Change / Rebellion

Industrial revolution / “Creative destruction” / “Surplus value”

Underground / Popular Anger / Struggle for Freedom

General Strike / Capitulation / Fresh Start

Vienna 1848

 

Bottom:

Sketches by David of the Tennis Court Oath, 20 June 1789

„Revolution is a living creature full of surprises“    



Triptychon - Poetically man dwells

Top left + top right:

Martin Heidegger, Lecture held on 6 October 1951 at Bühlerhöhe

“… poetically man dwells…”

[…] Our dwelling is harassed

by the housing shortage /

Even if that were not so, our dwelling today is

harassed by work

made insecure by the hunt for gain and success,

bewitched by the business of amusement and recreation /

“… poetically man dwells…”

Do we dwell poetically?

Presumably we dwell altogether unpoetically /

If that is so, does it give the lie to the poet´s words;

are they untrue?

No / The truth of his utterance

is confirmed in the most unearthly way /

For dwelling can be unpoetic only,

because it is in essence poetic / For a man to be blind,

he must remain a being by nature endowed with sight.

A piece of wood can never go blind /

But when man goes blind,

there always remains the question whether his blindness derives from some defect and loss

or lies in an abundance and excess /

In the same poem that meditates on the measure for all measuring, Hölderlin says:

“King Oedipus has perhaps one eye too many /”

Thus it might be that our unpoetic dwelling

its incapacity to take the measure,

derives from a curious excess of frantic measuring and calculating /

[…] The poetic is the basic capacity

for dwelling

[…] “As long as Kindness,

the Pure, still stays with his hearts,

not unhappily measures himself

against the Godhead…”

From SIGMA to OMEGA

 

Top left + top left: (3x)

“Attack on a thick door of glass” / 2018

Brief hesitation before using violence

against objects /

The experienced party member,

aide to the previous chair of the Socialist German Student League

notices in astonishment

the crowd of comrades that has been lingering for several minutes

in front of the VC´s office door

They don´t want to destroy

the valuable pane of thick glass,

though they do want to enter the office

“in order to occupy it” /

Several comrades

pressed up against the office door

suddenly have a battering ram in their hands /

The pane of the

office door shatters /

 

Off-Voice:

At night the wife tends the apparatus /

His working days allows Mr Burg to get some fresh air and walk squares for about 15 minutes, twice a day.

For thousands of years, people dwell in their houses.

Outside: Murderer, Industry, World.

During all that time, emotions remain the same.

 

Bottom centre:

It shimmers in a dark abode, very small, the solace of the new world

“Reason the tender germ”

URUK, 8000 years ago

“To let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.”

“Reason is an animal of balance”

“Reason” versus “iceberg”

According to a commentary on Jaques Derrida, the modern term “ratio” or “rationality” could be derived from the word ARRAISONNEMENT.

The Old French term means: inspection of a ship´s cargo before setting sail.

 

Top right:

Illegal Tunnel-Building

Wittgentein´s theory of language

 

“Thus each organic body of a living being

is a kind of divine machine

or natural automation

which infinitely surpasses all artificial automata …

the machines of nature, namely living organisms,

are still machines even in their smallest parts,

ad infinitum.”