The video work of both the film collective loekenfranke and Mats Staub involves the close observation of people. People talk, show themselves; they doubt, hope, struggle, take stock of their lives, their surroundings, the relationships that have shaped them and, at times, have forced change upon them. What has come of these desires? What was one able to gain, what is lost? Is it even possible to influence the tedious turning of time?
Who authors their own destiny anyway? By researching the past, information is gleaned about the present. And a faint idea of what may come. The work of loekenfranke and Mats Staub is best classified as »documentary« — but what does that mean? Does documentary footage tell a different truth than the arts?
Is an ever new, different, ever more truthful dimension demanded of it regarding all the issues with which the arts have long been concerned? Would the documentary then be effectively superior to the arts? Could it even provide answers? The work of Mats Staub and loekenfranke dissolves this seeming contradiction. Theirs are both documentary and artistic works. They do not unduly claim a concept of truth, by means of which humanity could be delivered from its woes. They do not claim to improve the world at all.
They can, however, claim one thing for themselves: accuracy of watching and listening, precision in their portrayal of people around the world; and the knowledge that everything that happens to the world, be it in the Ruhr area, other European regions, or on other continents, is anthropogenic. And their posing of the questions all arts have posed from time immemorial: What is responsibility?
How to coexist? How can we help each other? What is our nature, and what is the nature that surrounds us? How can we prevent each other from the destruction we relentlessly keep perpetuating? How can we bear the cruelties of love and death? How can we bear being thrown into the world, yet still know so little about ourselves? The great thing is, they defy categorization. Barbara Frey : Nowadays, as nature is largely being destroyed, intensive animal research is being conducted.
