Polka gallery presents Wim and Donata Wenders work – who have never since their 2005 show in Japan, renewed the experience of exhibiting together – which will be a combination of conceptual videos, sounds and photographs. Here is the interview of the artists by Adélie de Ipanema.
Adélie de Ipanema : You called this exhibition “Places of the Mind”, an original concept where your two visions as photographers meet around one same place: Canada, and one person: a charactere played by James Franco in your latest film “Every Thing Will Be Fine” which was released this year. First of all, how did you come up with this title (“Places of the Mind“)?
Donata Wenders : Our photographs around the shoot of “Every Thing Will Be Fine” were entirely different from each other. I was the still photographer on the set once the film started, while Wim only took pictures at a preparatory stage, when he was traveling through Quebec, looking for locations and trying to get familiar with the landscape and also with the very extreme weather conditions, such as on the frozen St. Laurent River. When he first encountered the little huts that the fishermen build on the ice during winter, he called me right away. He was so excited that the landscape had suggested a different beginning for his film…
Wim Wenders : Once we were shooting, Donata soon found herself an additional task that had really nothing to do with traditional set photography: she started photographing James Franco while he was reading. And the man was reading a lot! Practically whenever the camera was not rolling. I’d say “Cut!” and James would reach for his book to only put it down when I would say: “James, we’re ready to shoot again.” He is the first actor I ever worked with who practically never left the set. He’d always find himself a quiet spot to read, and then he was in a space just by himself.
DW : Between James and me this became sort of a special project, even if we at first didn’t talk too much about it. James was aware that I was taking his picture while he was reading, and he let me. There was a mutual understanding. First it was just a photo project, and then eventually it became an idea for an installation, a video piece that we then called “James Reading – Reading James”.
WW : But to answer your question: To find a common title for such diverse imagery was indeed quite challenging. But then we realized that the observation of a man who was all the time drifting off in his mind into all sorts of intellectual territories, and the observation of a landscape that might lead to eventually tell a story, could be summed up in one common title: “Places of the Mind”.
ADI : Can you explain to us how you chose to associate these works for the exhibition ?
DW : I have a long relationship with Polka and I have already exhibited there in the past. When I was talking with the gallery about my latest work “James Reading – Reading James”, talking both about showing an installation and a set of prints from that project, since all of these were done while on Wim’s film “Every Thing Will Be Fine” the gallerists were curious to know if Wim had also photographed during his shoot. And if so, would we be interested in showing work together? That is a question we’ve never really been asked before, at least not in Europe. Here, the works of a husband and wife are rather kept apart. So we looked at each other in surprise…
WW : But we both liked the idea to begin with, because our only prior experience of exhibiting together had been for both of us very good. We were really tempted to repeat it. My only question was: did I have anything to contribute ? I had not taken a single photograph during the shoot, only before, in preparation. So we dug out the contact sheets of these pictures that I had done – as always with my Plaubel 6×7 and my Fuji Panoramic 6×17. So far, I hadn’t printed any of these negatives. And then I liked what I saw… So one thing came after another and we finally accepted Polka’s offer.
ADI : You showed your works together only once: in Japan in 2005. Yet, on this occasion the roles are somehow reversed since Donata is presenting a film and Wim photographs.
WW : That is sort of ironic indeed. In “Places of the Mind”, Donata is the filmmaker and I’m showing stills. But only at first glance. Then you realize that my still frames lead me to a dramatic film in which the landscape plays an important part. And her film is really about the stillness of time in the photographic act. Our first joint show in Japan, “Journey to Onomichi” had altogether different implications.
DW : That was sort of a commission: how can two very different photographers go on a journey together? What do these four eyes see? The choice of the place had been left to us, and Wim – who knew Japan very well – had decided to go to a little town in the South of Japan where he had never been before: Onomichi.
WW : That’s where my hero director and master, Yasujiro Ozu, had begun and ended one of his most famous movies: “Journey to Tokyo”. We traveled there together, also photographed on the way, and then spend one week in Onomichi, both of us staying at the same traditional Inn, but going our separate ways during the day. I would search for places that would interest me. Donata was looking to find people in the fields, at tea ceremonies or at work. In the evening, we would tell each other what we had found, but we only actually saw each other’s work weeks later, once we had developed our films and made contact sheets.
DW : That was quite something: Wim couldn’t believe all the people I had encountered, and I was amazed by what sorts of places he had found all over the city. The show at Polka is only the second time we’re embarking on such an adventure.
ADI : Could both of you describe the way the other is photographing ?
WW : Donata has a loving eye for people. She manages to bring the best out of everybody who she decides to spend time with and photograph. And she does need time, she’s not a snapshot photographer. Her work becomes like a dialogue with that other person and she tries to really get to the essence, to the soul of each and every one of her subjects. Her work has always been in black and white, and in that realm she has developed an truly unique eye. I’m not kidding: she has become my favourite photographer when it comes to seeing and revealing a person and protecting that person at the same time.
DW : When it comes to searching for places and taking pictures of them, I am over and over blown away by Wim’s ability to find the most adequate spots and perspectives for portraying a place with his camera. Wim is best friend with places and he translates what they have to tell us into colour pictures, that for me are like paintings. Sometimes he returns to those places several times, just to listen again to what they have to tell him. So he often sees places in different lights: at dawn, dusk, in the daylight or even at night. And at other times, he can be touched by a place within seconds. I think he understands places and their stories, just like other photographers understand social situations or nature. When I see Wim’s photographs, I am moved by his kindness and his care towards his subject. Places only seem to reveal themselves to a few people. It seems thay are waiting for the person they have called, and then they can speak. Wim has a sense of place, he has a sense to hear the call and he follows this calling.
ADI : You are two very different photographers: your visions are not opposed to each other, but are complementary. What brings the vision of one, to the photographic work of the other?
WW : We are the first to see each other’s work. We help each other selecting and are very critical of each other’s prints.
DW : As we are so different, we both have a great freedom to see the other’s work from an angle that can really contribute to something.
ADI : Isn’t it diffi cult for you, Wim, to position yourself as a photographer being so renowned as a fi lmmaker? People like to put other people into boxes… How do you manage to present all the aspects of your artistic work ?
WW : In my own mind and in my daily life, and in the way I organize myself, my photography occupies an entirely different space than my filmmaking. They couldn’t be further apart. As a photographer, I work alone and I need to be alone. Those pictures I shot in preparation for “Every Thing Will Be Fine” were not really part of a “location hunt”. They were rather my way of understanding the landscape of Quebec and its strange existence drenched with European culture brought to the North American continent. As a filmmaker, when I travel, I have a story in mind. As a photographer, I’m blank. Only in a storyless void can I abandon myself to a place and a landscape and become the attentive listener or witness to this place’s story. If people or critics put me into a box as you said, that has nothing to do with me. It’s their problem and their preconditioning, not mine.
ADI : Donata, you also work as a set photographer on Wim’s shoots. How do you manage to separate this from your own artistic work ?
DW : My work on Wim’s set is strictly here to serve the movie. I try to get exactly the shots of the film camera and try to find the moment that is the most important in that scene. My vision melts with Wim’s. This is a very specific work, in which you are focused on every image the camera records. All of which always happens in colour. Whereas the work I described before – my own work – is very different. With this project that we are showing at Polka Galerie, I was able to combine the film set with being alone with one person in front of the camera. It was like a silent agreement that I was able, with my camera, to join James Franco in his “reading space”, in which he seemed to be just by himself.
ADI : I would like to end on your Foundation. Wim, you celebrated your 70th birthday this year, an opportunity to highlight your work as a filmmaker and as a photographer through a series of events. It was also an opportunity to put the spotlight on your newly created Foundation that Donata is chairing with you. Can you tell us more about it and its objectives ?
WW : The Wim Wenders Foundation owns all my films (with only 2 exceptions). My photographic work, my artistic work and my literary work will all end up in there as well. I’m very happy and extremely relieved about that. “Possession” isn’t all that desirable I feel. Why should I – as a person – continue to own my films? They belong to a collective memory anyway, at least some of them. And I’d like them to survive me. while at the same time, I’d want them to be taken care of and in the future to also look good in new media. Some of my negatives are now already more than 40 years old. They started deteriorating, colours are fading… There are damages on them that have accumulated over the years, like scratches and breaks. A Foundation is in a much better position to restore them and to invest in their future.
DW : Together with our team, under the direction of Laura Schmidt, we have now already transferred 17 of my films to a digital standard of 4K. That would have been difficult as a private owner, or for a business that has to think strictly in commercial terms..
WW : The second leg of the Foundation is the funding and support of young filmmakers. Every year we give grants that allow filmmakers to develop a project and have a certain financial independence for a while in order to do that. Our main criterion is to support innovative projects that have a chance to develop the language of filmmaking and to push it to new limits..
EXHIBITION
Places of the Mind
Donata & Wim Wenders
From November 13th to January 9th, 2016
Galerie Polka
Cour de Venise
12, rue Saint-Gilles
75003 Paris
France
http://www.polkagalerie.com
http://donatawenders.com
