Film

I do not wish to be known as a Vandal (2023)

I do not wish to be known as a Vandal is a 40-minute, audiovisual installation work from musician Sam Slater, performer Lukas Malkowski and Theresa Baumgartner. Spanning 40 minutes in length in its original iteration, Baumgartner presents Vandals, a short excerpt of the stunning film that functions as a moving image metaphor for failure, pain and resolve in the face of both. Captured in ultra slow motion with four high speed cameras, the work follows Malkowski, standing naked, falling on his face before picking himself up and returning to his original position. “It’s about defeat and failure, like seeing a car crash in slow motion, watching someone falling, watching the point of no return and then hurting themselves by falling on their face,” explains Baumgartner. “But it’s also watching the rebuild process, returning to point zero again, very slowly.” Slowed to a barely perceptible crawl, through a process of A.I.-enabled upscaling each frame of the film takes on the quality of a Caravaggio oil painting, each second of chiaroscuro amplified in a moving portrait.

takeoff (2021)

Actions, consequences, ambitions, and circumstances.
How do we move when we are faced with unstoppable forces? This film originally stemmed from Lukas Malkowski’s solo: ‘Unresisting Force’, presented at Citadel + Compagnie’s NIGHTSHIFT festival (2019). Filmed by Jubal Battisti, the work features an original score by Blunt Chunks (Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien), and lighting design by Chris Malkowski.

Direction: Jubal Battisti
Performance, Concept & Choreography: Lukas Malkowski
Music: Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien
Lighting Design: Chris Malkowski

Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR, aid programm DIS-TANZEN by the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland