Essay
Talking about Art is like Dancing about Architecture
Renowned exceptional talented musician, Frank Zappa, famously said that talking about music is like dancing about architecture. Every time I get asked about my work, I have a similar uprooted feeling about it. Now I could tell you something naive like how my very first camera changed how I saw the world when I was younger. Actually it changed much more. A camera can not only dictate how you perceive yourself but the whole concept of life around you. Quite literally. It keeps juggling with your dreams until you realize that you were never fully awake. At the same time – and not rarely quite contrary - it will uncage your wildest emotions. Or may I ask you one intimate question:
When was the last time your tears met your smile in a cinema?
Images can not only help to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that what everybody sees. Besides the meaning of this schopenhauered quote, that is one of the reasons why I think speaking in images is a kind of universal language. I agree one could compare filmmaking to cooking. In various ways. Shooting on location is like going shopping on the market. You buy all kinds of ingredients and the better ingredients you get, the better chance you have of making the film you want. But some films are meant to be felt, not understood. To the point where it serves as „the axe for the frozen sea within you“ as Kafka summarized the true power of media. But, as the past prooved it, from 1945 Germany to the Loveparade during the early 2000s. There is quite a spectrum along these seas. And seas come in waves.
So why can’t others open themselves up enough to be able to express who they are? Creativity is the desire to express ourselves. A form of emotional intelligence. It can not be teached, nor learned from a screen. Even Assange and Snowden couldn‘t leak whats needed to understand the concept behind it. It is rather something that evolves. Your perception of everything in your life fills up this reservoir. Creation is the birth of something, and something cannot come from nothing. It is about the experiences you collect and the people you meet. Just like our inner fundament - it can flourish or be strangled – but it must flow constantly. Then our work becomes a real part of who we are in life. Picasso once said that „art is the lie that reveals the truth“. Well, maybe all this is a question of how deep we are willing to go, so do not forget how to dance…
by Robert Schiemann
Mallorca, June 2021
(abstract from "Feine Zitatesammlung")
