by Jonas Brinker, 2019, 4'
4’28’’. Produced by Frankfurter Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist
Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2020 in occasion of the exhibition Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of CrisisThe film is part of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images - 9th edition
The protagonist of Standing Still is a rare specimen of domesticated wolf, used in the film industry, and able to respond to simple commands, to stay still and pose. The wolf is an historical symbol of protection and violence, and the embodiment aggressive primary instinct, as evinced by literary works and fables that have influenced human imaginations since childhood. The work follows on the heels of the recent repopulation of Germany’s forests with wolves, on which the local population often projects their fears. Through the use of an artificial and abstract environment such as the green screen, Brinker explores the impossibility of man’s total control over nature, revealing the looks and gestures of an animal that, despite training, retains all its symbolic charge.
Jonas Brinker (1989, GERMANIA) in his practice uses film and photography as tools of observation and contemplation. Trailing from a distance, he gently captures and reframes peripheries of tense environments. His patient cinematography reveals before the viewer imagery that could be seen as self-sufficient Umwelten. His work has recently been shown at Frankfurter Kunstverein; Städelmuseum, Frankfurt; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Goethe-Institut Israel and Berghain, Berlin. Brinker obtained a Bachelor degree from Slade School of Fine Arts in London in 2015 and continued his studies at Städelschule Frankfurt in the class of Douglas Gordons and Willem de Rooij. He graduated as Meisterschüler in 2018. While studying in Frankfurt he went on exchange to Bezalel Academy of Arts in Tel Aviv as well as visiting Josephin Prydes class in UDK Berlin as a guest student.