What art have I seen? Wenders’ film Anselm
At Glasgow Film Theatre.
Wenders’ ‘Anselm’ is a very good equivalent of an exhibition catalogue for Kiefer’s installation in the Doge’s Palace, Venice 2022. All the background, the development through two versions of a younger Kiefer.
‘Anselm’ is more biographical than Sophie Fiennes’ ‘Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow’. That film as I remember it is more focused on the Studio at Barjac (discussed here Aesthetics of Uncivilisation). Wenders’ is more interested in what it is to be German.
‘Anselm’ discusses the relationship with Nazism and Heidegger (spoiler Wenders’ seems to think Heidegger was silent on Nazism, which he wasn’t, but Kiefer’s work, in particular a book featuring Heidegger’s brain succumbing to cancer, is totally clear… the last pages are all black…).
The question of what you would do as a German in 1930 or 1939 was left hanging. Putting on your Dad’s uniform and going places acting it out salutes is reopening the wound.
Fail better | e-flux
Fail better at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (not a case of What art have I seen?)
“Try again / fail again / fail better,” is an inspirational quote by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. During his visit to Germany around 75 years ago, Beckett made a number of extended visits to the Hamburger Kunsthalle, and now—in keeping with his famous motto—the Kunsthalle is presenting a diverse selection of films and videos on the theme of failure. In works dating from the 1960s to the present day, internationally acclaimed artists explore this complex phenomenon, highlighting not only the playful, amusing and surprising aspects of failure but also its mournful and tragic dimensions.
CHRIS FREMANTLE 
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