The 19th edition of the POOL – MOVEMENT ART FILM festival presents a selection of inspiring movement art film productions and is a legendary meeting place for artists who move between different art forms. Following the film screenings, everyone is invited to socialise and enjoy a meal together.
Established in 2007, the festival focuses on films in which the close interplay between cinematic and dance movements gives rise to unique film choreographies – critical reflections, resonances and imaginings conveyed through the body and movement on screen. Curated from an established artistic network, an international call for entries and in collaboration with guest curators, the festival presents contemporary artistic positions and perspectives over three evenings.
The selected films – the PEARLS – reflect the diversity of the genre and its themes. Furthermore, POOL maintains close partnerships with the Goethe-Institut and international festivals such as MOV’IN Cannes, TRACE – Movement Art Film Festival Cape Town, Jumping Frames – Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival and BESTIAS DANZANTES – Festival de Cine de Danza (Chile).
This year’s festival opens with the POOL SHINE programme and is dedicated to the cinematic and interdisciplinary work of choreographer and performance artist Meg Stuart.
Since the early 1990s, she has continually re-explored the boundaries between dance, performance, visual art and film in her work and is regarded as one of the defining figures of contemporary dance.
Meg Stuart, born in New Orleans, is a choreographer, director and dancer who lives and works in Berlin and Brussels. Her work is driven by a sense for experiment and artistic cross-pollination, challenging the limits of the body and expanding our perception of reality. Moving between dance, theatre, visual arts, installation and film, she explores the scripts written on bodies, spaces and landscapes, and asks how these histories can be transformed through the potential of the present moment.
With her company Damaged Goods, founded in 1994, she has created more than thirty productions. Since entering the European art field with Disfigure Study in 1991, Meg Stuart has developed an oeuvre marked by fragmentation, transformation, body memory and the unstable relation between physical and emotional states.
Her practice extends beyond stage productions to site-specific works, video, publications and experimental formats for artistic exchange. Improvisation and collaboration remain central to her work, as does her engagement with the body as a site of memory and possibility. Stuart’s work has been presented internationally at venues and contexts including Documenta X, Manifesta7, PERFORMA and MoMA. She has received numerous distinctions, among them the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, the Deutscher Tanzpreis, a Bessie Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Curators/Organisation: Wibke Janssen, Alexander Ambite and Mensen
Guest curators: Elysa Wendi, Mayo Rodríguez Baeza, Louise Coetzer, Oscar O’Ryan
PEARLS presenter: Johanna Lemke
SHINE presenter: Peter Pleyer
Photographic documentation/social media: Barbara Dietl, Alexander Ambite y Mensen
Production assistant: Hristiyana Zafirova
Lighting, technical support: Daniel Miranda
Print design: Carmen Klaucke
Language: German, English
Festivalwebsite: pool-festival.de
Email: info@pool-festival.de
photo: Aline Belfort
POOL 26 is a co-production by DOCK ART and is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
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POOL – MOVEMENT ART FILM Festival Berlin was founded in 2007 and is based at DOCK 11. The film festival is characterised by its curatorial approach, which combines the presentation of contemporary movement-based films and historical works within the POOL Shine programme.