VestAndPage's performance-based independent art films range from art videos over short films to feature-length, which they sign responsible as directors, producers, writers, and performers. They are currently in post-production of STRATA, a performance-based feature documentary on Deep Time, and developing momentum, an ongoing series of videos in which they host conversations under existential focus with inspiring people from the arts, culture and science.
STRATA
2021/2022, Performance-based film
In caves of human prehistory, the project brings together artists and researchers from the humanities, social and geologic sciences to investigate the human body as a place that exists in continuity with the geological. Body artists illuminate concepts of deep time, past and modern human cultures through performances for the camera in caves.
Body, Geology, Ecology, Deep Time, History, Science, Documentary
STRATA
Performance-based film
2021 / 2022
momentum
In development, Video series
Documentary, Zeitgeist, History, Philosophy, Science, Dialogue
momentum
Video series
2020-ongoing
AMOR AND PSYCHE (In Times of Plagues)
2020, Short film, 9'24" min
A performatic approach to the chemical, physiological, psychological and spiritual aspects of Breath. Initially conceived during Stenke's tuberculosis disease in 2019, the work has been resumed and actualized during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
AMOR AND PSYCHE
(In Times of Plagues)
Short film
2020
Poetics of Relations
A Manifesto on Performance-Based Filmmaking
2020, Video article
This video article expands upon the "Poetics of Relations", the embodied research of VestAndPage, which informs their performance-based filmmaking theory and practice.
Embodied Practices, Film, Performance art, Manifesto, Geopsychology, Strange stranger, Hyperobjects
Poetics of Relations
Manifesto on
Performance-Based Filmmaking
2020
ANAM CARA –
Mirror in the Mirror
2020, Film
A collective co-created performance-based film about the concept of home by and with VestAndPage and the Anam Cara Collective. Produced during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in April and May 2020, the film is a radical contemporary fairy tale, a journey through an imaginary dwelling.
Home, Pandemic, History, Co-Creation, Collective
ANAM CARA
Mirror in the Mirror
Performance-based film
2020
Spinning, stirring, sweeping
2020, Video performance
A video performance response to the 1992-performance by MARILYN ARSEM, combining layers of the historic performance archive material with actions by Verena Stenke and Sara Simeoni in 2020.
History, Crafts, Storytelling, Feminism, Magic, Mythology
Spinning, Stirring,
Sweeping
Video
2020
SIGNUM
2018, Short film, 33 min.
A quest for real and imaginary signs – words and poetry to be revealed, composed and transcoded by the same geological strata from which they emerge. In search for expressions, languages to speak and connections to be made beyond what words can name.
Performance, Semiotics, Nature, Geology, Ecology, Strange stranger
SIGNUM
Performance-based film
2018
Plantain
[Spitzwegerich]
2018, Film, 90 min
Starting from their personal German family story, VestAndPage embarked in May 2015 on a month-long performance walk from Germany through Poland to the Russian region of Kaliningrad, to perform and film on the location of true events of post-WWII displacements. In 7 episodes, the resulting feature-length art film questions oblivion through a series of poetic moving images.
Art, Biography, History, Philosophy, War
Plantain
[Spitzwegerich]
Feature film based on a month-long performance walk
2018
Topolino
A Globetrotter's Fairy Tale
2014, Silent film, 56 min.
Topolino is lost, lonesome and nostalgic, on his journey to extraordinary places. In a search for the myths that surround them, he entangles himself in failures and encounters first of all himself and his stereotypes. Shot at Mount Sodom, the Negev Desert, the Dead Sea, the Bosporus, Tuscany, the Chinese Wall, Glacier Perito Moreno, and Antarctica.
Adventure, Art, Comedy, Drama, Family
Topolino
A Globetrotter's Fairy Tale
Performance-based film
2014 ongoing
sin∞fin
Performances at the Core of the Looking-Glass
2012, Trilogy episode short, 45'42" min
Produced in Antarctica, the concluding episode short of the sin∞fin trilogy engages through narratives on the comprehensive spheres of nature and the universe. The trilogy of art films of collaborative performances in epic locations around the world teeters between the real and the visionary and is amplified by unfamiliar environments.
DVD | VOD | www.sinfin-themovie.de
Biography, Documentary, Drama, Ecology, Science, Philosophy
sin∞fin
Performances at the Core of the Looking-Glass
Performance-based film
2012
sin∞fin
Performances at the Holy Centre
2011, Trilogy episode short, 37'14" min
Produced in Northern India and Kashmir, the second episode short of the sin∞fin trilogy highlights the sphere of society and religion. The trilogy of art films of collaborative performances in epic locations around the world teeters between the real and the visionary and is amplified by unfamiliar environments.
DVD | VOD | www.sinfin-themovie.de
Biography, Documentary, Drama, Ecology, Science, Philosophy
sin∞fin
Performances at the Holy Centre
Performance-based film
2011
sin∞fin
Performances at the End of the World
2010, Trilogy episode short, 38'52" min
Produced in Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the first episode short of the sin∞fin trilogy focuses on the inner sphere of microcosm and the intimate domain of the individual and the couple. The trilogy of art films of collaborative performances in epic locations around the world teeters between the real and the visionary and is amplified by unfamiliar environments.
DVD | VOD | www.sinfin-themovie.de
Biography, Documentary, Drama, Ecology, Science, Philosophy
sin∞fin
Performances at the End of the World
Performance-based film
2010
Panta Rhei – Tracing History
2011, Video, 6'47" min
A video poem about trust in change.
Travel, Dao, Philosophy
More Info >
Panta Rhei
Tracing History
Video
2011
Decameron
2009, Video, 12'44" min
(producer, writer, director, editor, performer)
A video poem in seven chapters about the question of existence. Shot in 2009 at the Tuscan village of Certaldo, the birthplace of Decameron-author Boccaccio, who shelters his protagonists in a secluded villa outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city in 1348.
Biography, History, Literature, Philosophy
De-Cameron
Video
2009
Crossing
2009, Video, 4'05" min
A journey through isolation and reflection with pathogens as mnemonics of Deep Time.
Biology, Biography, Poetry, Philosophy
Colonize
Video
2009
Crossing
2009, Video, 2'51" min
On a street corner that looks paved like a chessboard, people wander anonymously in opposing directions. They join each other and separate along two intersecting lines on the road, appearing and disappearing as if they echo the impermanence of life. There is a moment in which they double in perfect harmony, but direct communication is inexistent.