7. Werkleitz Biennale Happy Believers
Festival Program
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Exhibition
Participants
Concept
Service
Picture Gallery
german version
Wednesday 06.09.2006

7 p.m. Weinecksaal / Cinema
ERÖFFNUNG
Grußworte von Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, Kultusminister des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt;
Peter Zorn, Biennale Co-Director
und vom Kuratorium der Biennale.

ERÖFFNUNGS-FILMPROGRAMM
Powers of Ten
Charles and Ray Eames
US 1977, 9 min, English


pilgrImage
Adrian Paci
AL 2005, 14 min, English
Courtesy Peter Kilchmann Gallery, Zürich


Magical World
Johanna Billing
SE 2005, 6:12 min, loop
Courtesy of Johanna Billing and Hollybush Gardens, London


8:30 p.m.
Opening of the Exhibition

10 p.m. Happy Believers Club
eternal sunshine
audio visual performance
by d.m. hirsch and Familie Blender; Halle, Berlin, Wien


11 p.m. Weinecksaal / Cinema
Heaven On Earth
Rick Minnich
DE 2001, 52 min, English with German subtitles


Magical World

Johanna Billing: Magical World
Magical World is a result of collaboration with a group of children from a free after-school music club based at a run down 1980s cultural centre in Dubrava, a suburb of Zagreb, Croatia. The focus of the work is a group of children rehearsing ?Magical Worldg, chosen by Billing and written by the black American singer Sidney Barnes (1968), who was part of the group Rotary Connection. Magical World captures the momentous shift between old and new economic and ideological systems. A personal transition is expressed by the song that could also be said to allude to the fast-paced development taking place in a relatively young country facing European Union demands for future integration into the group of member states. This is further articulated as the children struggle to handle the arrival of the international use of English, and as such follows the meaning of the lyrics. The song is at times both melancholic and existential and is conceivably at odds with their tender age. The rehearsal is interwoven with life outside, leading up to an intimate performance by the children in their music class.
Johanna Billing

Cinematographer: Manne Lindwall, Musical Arrangements: Petra Jezutkovic, Original Song by Sidney Barnes 1968 (Chevis Music publishing Corp, BMI), Co-produced by WHW/Rooseum, Production Assistant: Sonja Boric

The Swedish artist Johanna Billing's video works deal with the performative side of rituals, routines and rehearsals always in a loop to generate a certain sentiment. Billling has produced works in many different countries and contexts. In 2004?2005 she produced Magical World in Zagreb, where she was invited by the curator collective WHW (What, How and for Whom?). Billing is co-founder of the record company Make it Happen in Sweden.
www.makeithappen.org/magicalworld.html
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