La video-artista americana Shelly Silver propone un trabajo pionero. El documental Former East / Former West reúne entrevistas de berlineses justo dos años después de la caída del muro. Reflejan dos realidades ahora unidas en un mismo régimen democrático. La necesidad de una redefinición identitaria es una evidencia pero no se sabe lo que esto significa y la duda mezclada con la voluntad y la nostalgia se respira en el aire. Sus declaraciones fascinan por su contemporaneidad y nos aclaran sobre este momento decisivo del fin de guerra fría.
El documental ha sido proyectado en instituciones reconocidas como en la Berlinische Galerie de Berlín, en el Lincoln Center y el MoMA en Nueva-York, en el Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo de Mexico DF…
Former East / Former West de Shelly SilverDocumental, 1994, 62 min.
VO alemán, subtitulado inglés
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"Anyone who wants to better understand why it is so difficult to 'merge what belongs together' will want to see this film." Dr. Christopher Stomach, New Hampshire German Symposium
"Dealing with the early years of reunification, Shelly Silver’s hour-long film Former East/Former West (1994) presents a compelling portrait of the mental landscape that prevails in a persistently divided Germany. In interviews with a fascinating range of individuals on the street, Silver probes attitudes towards notions of de- mocracy, socialism, history, foreigners and nationality. Gradually outlining a substantial disparity in the experience of the “Wessies,” for whom little had changed, and the “Ossies,” whose daily lives were often transformed, the film’s value as a historical document is based on its ability to deconstruct stereotypes of East and West. However, it leaves the unsettling question of whether today’s responses might be at all different — a valuable starting point for a discussion worth pursuing."
in FlashArt, 01/02.2010, by Laura Schleussner
