Interviews

  • Rhythmic writings and atmospheric impressions. An interview with Klaus Wyborny

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    Klaus WybornyInterview by Federico Rossin. May 11-13, 2012

    For Klaus Wyborny to make a a film in camera has a lifelike quality, is a complex process in which he peels images off reality in thin layers. In this interview, conducted in the context of tribute curated by Federico Rossin held in the festival Images and Views of Alternative Cinema in Nicosia, Cyprus, last June, the German filmmaker explains how he relates the history of filmic forms with his own history.

    You studied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in Hamburg and then in New York: how have your studies influenced your work as filmmaker?

    Often I look at pictures as almost abstract quantum-field-like entities. Something that pops up in space and time, and then disappears. A particle that comes to life and vanishes after an interaction with a viewer. Accordingly I don't think of pictures being "images" that record reality, but I consider them to be "impressions" depicting certain atmospheric qualities that are unique for a short moment or will disappear very soon. So I don’t aim at a "realistic" presentation of world phenomena, but I rather want to generate something like a visual "impressionism in time".

    What do you think about experimental films made using mathematical structures?

    Most of them are too silly. Just permutations, golden ratio, etc. In Pictures of the Lost Word (1971-1975) I worked extensively with permutations of three parameters with changing properties, which was interesting for a while, but in the end I found it intellectually undemanding and boring. So I got more interested in musical notations. I admire the mathematical-rhythmical complexity of the late Beethoven, of Schönberg and Webern.

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