Depiction part I

Since the mid-1970s, Marcel Odenbach has produced an extensive body of tapes, performances, drawings and installations, and has gained recognition as one of Germany’s most important artists working in video.

His works engage in a provocative discourse on the construction of self in relation to historical and cultural representation. Recent works by Odenbach combine video, found footage and cinematic references and are a highly personal response to his recent visits to South Africa, Cameroon, Rwanda and Ghana. His films have been read as mosaics of human dreams, fears and hopes.

Introduction by Renske Janssen / Nicolaus Schafhausen, 5 min.

Männergeschichten 2. Young Guys, 2005, Sweden, DVD, 10 min.
Männergeschichten 2. Young Guys starts with the image of a clinging church bell, followed by the scene of a priest at the end of his Sunday speech. Three young men in Rock ‘n Roll outfits lean against their car. One asks “Why do we do this?” The other replies “You gotta do something, don’t you?”. In the moments that follow, we see the men repairing their cars and rearranging their leather jackets. Männergeschichten 2. Young Guys shows the Baby-boom generation in a contemporary setting and looks back at that time by the nostalgic sound of a 16 mm projector on the voice-over.

Deutschstunde, 2006, DVD, 7 min.
With Deutschstunde Odenbach refers to the time of Nazi Germany by letting young people recite texts of an older generation. Personal memories of the artist are entangled with national history and Odenbach questions the notion of “currency”.

Marcel Odenbach in conversation with Nicolaus Schafhausen. 20 min.
A conversation about the use of video as means to communicate a political point of view: what is the ethical and aesthetical implication of its use?

Innere Sicherheit, 2002, DVD, 8:40 min.
With the title Innere Sicherheit Odenbach picks up a frequently used political catchphrase. A short scene of Eva Braun on a flowering Obersalzberg is combined with slow motion images of a religious sect shot by Odenbach in downtown Cologne. The video is structured by the view of a hand dropping an acorn, in this case a filmic quote of the Scientology logo. Oldenbach terminates this image before the acorn can sprout into a tree as the original does. He counters the widespread desire for images and securities by creating uncertainties, by refusing to immediately interpret the images he uses. [Text after Astrid Wege].

In still waters crocodiles lurk, 2004, DVD, 31:20 min.
Originally conceived as a video installation, In still waters crocodiles lurk is a seven chapter story shot in Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide.

Marcel Odenbach in conversation with Nicolaus Schafhausen. 30 min.
The conversation continues.