Moving Images on the Margins: Experimental Film in Late Socialist East Germany by Seth Howes (review)

• Published in: German Studies Review Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 428 - 430
• Main Author: Smith, Briana J
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01.05.2020
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Allusion; Artists; Authorship; Cold War; Dance; Everyday life; Experimental films; German language; Literary devices; Motion picture directors & producers; Motion pictures; Multimedia; Performance art; Photography; Readers; Socialism; Visual artists; East Germany; Germany
• DOI: 10.1353/gsr.2020.0059
• ISSN: 0149-7952; 2164-8646

Though it suggests it is a book about experimental film, it is really about East German experimental art and the intermedial tendencies leading artists to work with a variety of forms, including super-8 films, performance, installations, mail art, and photography. [...]the title's reference to margins is more accurate and refers not only to the peripheral social and institutional positions inhabited by many experimental artists, but also to their desire to blur the boundaries between artistic forms. [...]readers will encounter a wide range of experimental practices woven into the projects foregrounded by Howes, including super-8 film, dance, multimedia installations, performance art, mail art, and sculpture. Other East German artists embraced experimental filmmaking within a larger artistic practice focused on building artistic networks transcending artificial Cold War divisions and bringing art closer to everyday life.