The Association for the Promotion of Art and Culture at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Verein zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur am Rosa Luxemburg Platz) celebrates the premiere of the exhibition THE LAST BROADCAST on 24 February 2022. The film of the same name and an installation by the artist Declan Clarke will be shown. The exhibition is also the film premiere.
Image above: via Kunstverein am Rosa Luxemburg Platz
At the centre of Declan Clarke’s exhibition The Last Broadcast is his new film What Are the Wild Waves Saying? which premieres today. The romantic title, which is based on a song from the mid-19th century that imagines a dialogue between the famous brother and sister in Dickens’ Dombey and Son, serves Clarke primarily as a metaphorical analogy between the waves of the sea and those of the radio.
In fact, the film tells a multi-layered and complex story of transition and transmission, of media influence, of surprising connections and certain historical parallels between a divided Ireland and an equally divided Germany, including the associated history of disinformation and espionage. For the first time, Stuart Ryan is a real figure who far surpasses his fictional predecessors from the artist’s earlier films in terms of suspicious opacity and character ambiguity.
As he has done several times before, Clarke works in parallel in narrative and documentary modes in this film, combining them with elements of the noir and spy genres. Produced especially for the exhibition at the Kunstverein, the film is accompanied by an installation that weaves props, photos, texts and historical exhibits from a real but now closed radio museum into a web rich in associations.
Both the film and the installation make intensive reference to the role of radio in times of conflict, as played through the dissemination of political propaganda, particularly during the Second World War and the Cold War that followed. As an Irishman living in Berlin, it was natural to explore these central themes through a series of historical connections between Ireland and Germany.
*The extended 2G+ regulation applies to the opening. Please continue to wear an FFP2 mask.
WHEN?
Opening
Thursday, 24 February 2022, 14:00 to 18:30, the film will be shown in the Loop at the opening.
Exhibiiton period
Friday, 25 February – Sunday, 10 April 2022, the film starts at 2 p.m., 3.30 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively
open Wed-Fri 14:00 to 18:30 + by appointment as well as by chance
WHERE?
Verein zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur am Rosa Luxemburg Platz, Linienstraße 40,
10119 Berlin-Mitte
