zhe films

"Mincemeat" as creative food for mind and spirit

Aachen. Can I get a little more? Would you like a little more? In the Salvini butcher's shop, Bismarckstraße 100, the obligatory enquiry of these days sometimes shows a completely different way than the anything meaty. Not fish, not meat, not bodily, but rather cultural delights is what the latest work by five artists from different fields promises, which König Kunde can now acquire between fillets and beef, so to speak, as a creative Klops - exclusive, of course.

Food for the head and mind: The inclined interpreter can let the question about the causes of the unusual concerted action between butcher and muses melt on his tongue. One thing is certain: "3/4 pounds of minced pigs" is the name of the latest video production that the Aachen cameraman and photographer Gerd Plitzner, together with the recently deceased dancer Marcio Valeriano, the percussionist Wanderson Valeriano de Azevedo as well as the organist Lutz Felbick and the painter Ralf Walraff, are selling - "hygienically cleanly packed and shrink-wrapped in foil".
An original artist's video, this is how the makers apostrophise the 27-minute strip. A collage of the most diverse creative head births, the focus of which is the work of Ralf Walraff. On display are paintings and photographs by the trained graphic designer, which - to stay in the picture - represent the foil for the experimental sound surfaces of pianist Lutz Felbick. The whole thing is seasoned with a pinch of textual sprinkles such as comments from jazz concerts. This art world contrasts with laconically contemplative landscape shots, primarily from the High Venn, as well as excerpts from a performance by the dancer Valeriano, who many Aacheners may have remembered not least for his performances in the Ludwig-Forum.

All this in completely unhectic cuts combined into an essayistic homage to one and a half decades of artistic creation by Ralf Walraff - as long as supplies last. So if the spirit is willing, the flesh should not remain weak for too long.

Matthias Hinrichs / Aachener Zeitung 1997