Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup
11 Jun 2023 - 20:00
Doors 20:00, Start 20:30
ausland
Territory for arts and collateral damage
Lychener Str. 60
10437 Berlin
„Krampa Part One – Tonight is the Night of the Krampa!“
(Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup, Ger/Au, 2 min. 40 sec, 2020)
With: Kerstin Cmelka, McLovla, Sylvia Mentrup and Mario Mentrup
Drawings by Claudia Basrawi
Cinematography: Eric Bell, Kerstin Cmelka
The song “Mira transformes” was written, performed and recorded by Mario Mentrup & Kerstin Cmelka in Berlin, 2020
Supported by Bundeskanzleramt Österreich
Thank you Botschaft, Berlin and Galerie Zwitschermaschine, Berlin
© Kerstin Cmelka, 2020
„Krampa Part Two - Rauhe Nächte“
(Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup, Ger/Au, 4 min. 30 sec, 2021)
With: McLovla, Sylvia Mentrup and Mario Mentrup
Cinematography: Eric Bell, Kerstin Cmelka
Drawing by Claudia Basrawi
Score: Mario Mentrup & Kerstin Cmela --written, performed and recorded in Berlin, 2020
Supported by Bundeskanzleramt Österreich
Thank you: Botschaft, Berlin and Galerie Zwitschermaschine, Berlin
© Kerstin Cmelka, 2021
Brief info about KRAMPA
(a project by Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup 2020-2021)
So called „Krampusläufe“ taking place in the night from the 5th to the 6th of December in Austria, Bavaria, Rhineland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Slovenia often times ended in acts of violence and abuse.
The Krampus is a pagan character taken over into christian tradition of the advent season, where the days get darker and darker (the ghosts that arise on the border of the world of the light to the world of the dark- like at Halloween) especially in the Alps, such as the so called “Schiachperchten” (ugly, satanic-like costumed groups of men after Christmas as well as in Carneval times – at the end of the dark winter, traditionally performing until today – even though in most cases as touristic event -in order to get rid of the ghosts of the winter).
“Krampa” casts the Satan like male Krampus with the female version of Krampa and connects her with Happening and Performance art of the 1960s and 70s, mainly with material actions of the Viennese Actionists (Hermann Nitsch, Otto Mühl and others) as well as Yves Kleins “Anthropometries”, performances that have been (and still are) criticized, mainly because of their potential of male abuse of power and manipulation, at the same time they are still celebrated as pioneers of body art and their sociopolitical impact, the breaking of taboos that changed the art world and infected bohemian post war societies.
The aesthetics of actionist performance art have been quoted and re-enacted many times in various art and design contexts, sometimes also just as form or even as an effect with no real content. Sexual desire, erotic games, vaudeville or pornography via a satanic looking persona have made their way even into the coffee table books of a bohemian soft porn audience.
„Life is Shlock — Krampa III“ (Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup, Ger/Au, 22 min., 2021)
A film by Kerstin Cmelka & Mario Mentrup
The last, and so far the longest part of the Krampa films begins with preparations for the carnival (Perchtenlauf), which can no longer take place. Three Krampas train in an empty studio building, practicing defense and attack in the long corridors and desolate rooms of an abandoned city. Chains of associations from action art, naked wrestling, Florentine football, and coded text are intertwined to form a dystopian stream of consciousness, culminating in the transfiguration into the fauna, the mother of the Earth, in a utopian punk fairytale.
With: Kerstin Cmelka, Mario Mentrup, McLovla, Amelia Jean Kepler, Claudia Basrawi, guest appearance by Spibywheel
Camera and editing: Kerstin Cmelka
Drawings: Claudia Basrawi, Kerstin Cmelka, Mario Mentrup
Music: Mario Mentrup, Kerstin Cmelka
Supported by Bundeskanzleramt Österreich