Beyond the prosaic boundaries of reality
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| Miron Zownir. Berlin 2016 . © Miron Zownir |
Miron Zownir was born in 1953 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
He moved to West-Berlin in the seventies at his early twenties and tried to get
accepted at the Berlin Film School, but he was refused and survived with
temporary jobs in poor neighbourhoods trying to avoid any feeling of
frustration. He took then the camera and began to film in the streets of
Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Wedding, where people lived in very hard conditions.
The wall at that time was there also very close keeping tourism away and the
architecture had still the print of Hitler megalomania mixed by then with the
threat of communism. Some years later he moved to London and lived the birth of
the punk movement with its volcanic cocktail of nihilism and self-destruction,
before expatriating to the United States in 1981, where he stayed until 1995
when he finally moved back again to Berlin after a failed movie project and a
sense of artistic isolation. He needed to write in German, he reminds. He has
since 1986 written and directed ten short films and worked in collaborating
projects with Alexandre Rockwell, Ryu Murakami and Chosei Funahara, as well as
a feature-length documentary which was shown at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival.
He has written five novels like Kein schlichter Abgang (No easy way out)
published in 2003, and a book of short stories, Parasiten der Ohnmacht
(Parasites of Hopelessness), published first in 2009 and again in 2011 in
the format of audio book featuring thirteen short stories from Zownir's
original book and music by FM Einheit. As a photographer, he was hailed by
Terry Southern as the "Poet of Radical Photography" and his work has
been exhibited in galleries and museums in several countries. He is an artist
that sees the light in the dark, in ambiguity, in the other side of the
artificial moon created by our decadent western society. To get into Zownir’s
work is to get into mystery, into the land of the never answered questions,
even the ones never wondered, probably because as The Beatles once sang “living
is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.” Miron Zownir let us
see and wonder.
What is poetry?
There are so many definitions and so
many different expressions of poetry, from a simple hearted love letter to the
complexity of a drama by Shakespeare or the hallucinatory nightmare voyage of
Lautréamont’s Maldoror. But you can also find poetry in an enchanting smile, in
the shape and colour of a leave, in the sound of the wind, in anything that
triggers your emotions, phantasy and sensations beyond the prosaic boundaries
of reality.
You work on poetry through words but also through
photography and filmmaking. What do these visual languages give you that you
can’t achieve through the words?
That’s pretty obvious. With words you
depend very much on the interpretation of the reader. You could describe a
personal crises and someone might think it’s hilarious. You trigger
imaginations but everybody’s vision is different. As a photographer you are
much more a witness of a moment in time. And if you’re more abstract and
not that explicit you can create images that are closer to drawings or
paintings. Film is like recreating or cloning life even if your space up into
the most delirious adventures…
Your work is often described as radical. Do you
think our society needs radicalism? And what’s radical for you?
Well what’s the contrary to radicalism?
Conformism? Hitler, Stalin, Mao were fucking radical too. So is ISIS. Like
anything else it depends. Radical is just a word. In my case it means that I
don’t censor myself and choose subjects that are not very pleasant,
entertaining or commercial.
One could say that to reduce reality to the use of black
and white is to simplify it. What’s the reason behind that use?
You could also say b/w makes it more
mysterious, abstract and harder to grab.
Your photography and your films are more fruit of
spontaneity or of a previous stage design?
You’re talking about two completely
different approaches. My photography is mostly very spontaneous and I’m working
alone. My films might have the visual quality of my photos. But filmmaking is a
much longer and no solitary process. I write the script, hand pick the
locations, do the casting and the directing. I have the privilege of a great
cameraman, a great producer and great actors. But I work without any or a very
limited budget because the film boards consider me too “radical”.
Your work often focuses on marginality and its
causes. Attraction or denounce?
Definitely no denounce. Why should I
devote a big part of my life to a subject I’d despise? That’s absurd. And I’m
definitely more attracted to a sexy girl than to a miserable person dying in
public. But people on the edge don’t get much attention from anybody else, they
have no lobby or support. And there are thousands of other reasons to pay
attention to them. And yes there is a kind of feeling of fraternity, compassion
and admiration.
Your latest film is Back to nothing shot on
abandoned locations in Berlin. There’s a character that announces the end of
the world surrounded by broken lives completely hidden by society. Now there is
the tragedy of refugees, which are not real refugees because they are still
looking for a refuge that Europe denies them. What is your opinion about
this situation and about the reaction of European governments and European
citizens?
As I understand a refugee is a person
looking for a refuge. Not a person who has already refuge. Anyway I think there
are already millions of people in Europe getting food, a roof over their heads
and medical attention. Maybe that’s not enough but in what other continent or
country would you get that much? And how many more million refugees can Europe
shelter? People now in need but with a potentially different outlook, religion
and values. Anyone denying a potential cultural clash is a fool. Of cause
harbouring refugees is potential business, but the lower income population of
Europe will not profit from it. And the ones that profit from it won’t share
their profits with the ones in need. On the contrary. Regardless of all this
future problems and many more to come I’m always with the underdogs and I
wouldn’t deny any of them shelter. But I want to live in a free world and
Europe is already too restricted for me. And I don’t need more religious
intolerance, or moralistic imperatives because for me any religion is poison.
As an admirer of Einstürzende Neubauten music I must
ask you about your project with FM Einheit and the actor Birol Ünel around your
book PARASITES OF HOPELESSNESS (Parasiten der Ohnmacht). What could you
tell me about this project and about all these parasites of hopelessness?
Unfortunately it’s not translated into
English. It was written in German and translated into Bulgarian. Otherwise you
could have read it and make up your mind about it. It covers a whole range of
losers, psychopath, criminals, drifters, grifters, dreamers and loners. A
parasite of hopelessness is a person forced into an unbearable living condition
due to a lack of recognition, respect, charisma, health, opportunities, talents
or self-esteem. A person living at the fringe and mercy of society eating its
crumbs.
Birol and I recorded 13 short stories
and poems from my book and FM Einheit did a great soundtrack for it. I would
highly recommend the audiobook to anyone. As well as the book “Parasiten der
Ohnmacht”, as well as any of my photobooks such as “NYC RIP”, “Down and Out in
Moscow”, “Ukrainian Night” etc.
That project also features a special photo show for
your short story Final destiny. What is your final destiny? And what do
you think is going to be the final destiny of western society?
My final destiny is a grave yard, becoming
a speck of dust or an undetectable grain of mud. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…
As for Europe it will lose its identity.
It will be overrun by people who don’t believe in birth control or victims of
people that don’t believe in birth control. Victims of wars and starvation,
victims of political and religious intolerance. People who will love it and
integrate and people who will hate it and fight it. And ultimately Europe will
become a potential warzone as any Arabic or African country. With the globalisation
and victory of capitalism the cleft between the poor and the superrich will
become absolutely intolerant. Racism is already on the rise! Add to it
envy, frustration, hatred, fear and materialistic deficits and Europe slips out
of its save and cosy comfort zone.
Could you tell me a memory from your childhood?
I was a chasing with two other kids
towards an entrance of a beautiful garden. But the door was too narrow for
three kids. I was half a step ahead of the other two, got pushed by I never
found out who, smashed with my forehead at a concrete pillar woke up in the
hospital and got yelled at by a Nazi nurse sewing my wound with a gigantic
needle that I should keep calm and take it like a man.
Miron Zownir photography | A selection here
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero
Photo by Miron Zownir
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