CARMELITA GETS THE SPIRIT

Going through my old tapes I found this amazing gem from the 1988 production of Candela, a collaborative multi-media production by Carmelita Tropicana, Ela Troyano and myself directed by me. Hope you enjoy.

ParisChandalierX3byUziParnes.mov

PARIS CHANDALIER X3

PARIS CHANDALIER X3

By Uzi Parnes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky1IQZBP53k

Paris Chandalier (sic) X3 is conceived as a three channel video installation.

The piece began as a parody of YouTube travelogues and evolved to include an examination of context and meaning derived from music and its effects on visual perception. My intention was to parody the customary city travelogues strung together for many of the world’s great cities by piecing images of their most famous icons. In Paris, these are the Eifel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysees. In my version of the “travelogue” the Eifel Tower is not recognizable when it appears, and often not perceived at all in the abstract photos that depict it or the other landmarks.

The piece utilizes a series of about 80 images shot in Paris in December and January 2009/10. The images are all of light and capture the “City of Light” in an abstract painterly manner that transforms it into pure light and color. Intended to be seen from three monitors that are suspended, as a triangular chandelier the work continues my exploration of “Photo-Chandaliers” a term I coined to describe the objects I created that combined elements of both. These Photo-Chandaliers evolved from my 1982 performance “Chandalier Fashion Show” starring Jack Smith. In 1984 I co-founded East Village performance club Chandalier (often spelled Chandelier by others.) There the Photo-Chandaliers were created initially as part of the décor. Subsequently, they have evolved and in Paris Chandalier X3 I am striving to transform the abstracted photo images of the city of light hanging them from video monitors as a chandelier.

To the images I wanted to add music and chose three distinctly different renditions of Cole Porter’s classic song I Love Paris-a personal favorite. With the music I was interested in giving the flavor of the city as an American in Paris. I discovered as I produced the tape that each of the renditions of the classic song created a unique quality though in each sequence the images remain identical. The timing was shortened or elongated to fit the music but the visual sequence remained identical. Yet, each song creates a unique atmosphere, which interacts with the images distinctly. Together the three sequences create a much more vibrant portrait though albeit it remains an abstract one.

Paris Chandalier X3 is intended to be seen ultimately as a three channel work. I envision the viewer able to move around the suspended triangle of monitors, each playing a single version of the song, which are of different lengths. As the three sound areas interact I am interested in the soundscapes that will be created where the songs bleed into each other acoustically. Since the songs are of different lengths, these acoustic spaces will be in constant flux as different sections of each song overlap. To transform the uploaded Paris Chandalier X3 into a three channel piece: place 3 laptops or I-pads in a triangle, FF to beginning of each channel, and start all 3 versions simultaneously.

Translation of Excerpt from Article by Jan Kedeves, Berlin

This year the organiser of the queer Teddy Award could find 61 films within the Berlinale festival program. That's quite amazing when you have 400 films. But the most queer event of the festival wasn't even counted in. The New York experimental filmmaker Uzi Parnes and the Cuban filmmaker Ela Troyano had organised a wild and loud orgy of images on thursday night at the Arsenal, in conjunction with the Forum Expanded Program. Images of naked Adonisses, documentary footage from the Fuck piers ( these public cruising areas in the 80's in in abandoned buildings at the harbour in Manhattan), brain fucking sewing noises by John Zorn and a live reading by berlin actress Susanne Sachsse. This was a performance in the tradition of the "Live Film" concept of Jack Smith, whose intention it was, to create an almost non reproductable, unconventional and therefore uncommercial form of film. Uzi Parnes, who cooperated with Smith in the 80's, and Troyano, who received a Teddy Award for Carmelita Tropican in 1994, were working against the ultra-conventional films, which were most represented by the boring queer documentaries in this years festival.

A REVIEW OF THE SILENCE OF MARCEL DUCHAMP

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The teddy bear is against Guido

Not merely the QUEER SUJETS now losing sight of social relationships: Despite the almost traditionally failed gala ceremony of the Teddy Award in 2010 had its beautiful moments

BY JAN KEDVES

This year could make the organizers of the Teddy Queer Film Award at a total of 61 films in the Berlinale program queer subjects. At a certain total number of 400 films shown not a bad cut.

This is by far the queerste film event of the Berlinale was not even included. The New York filmmaker Uzi Parnes and the Cuban filmmaker Ela Troyano übereinandergeblendet had on Thursday night at the Arsenal, in the framework of the Forum Expanded Program, in its performance "The Silence of Marcel Duchamp," a wild orgy of noisy images: pictures of naked Adonis, documentary photos Fuck of the pier (those used in the eighties to the public Cruising abandoned warehouses in the port of Manhattan), deafening Sägegeräusche by John Zorn and a live reading of the Berlin actress Susanne Sachsse. This was a performance in the tradition of "live movie" concept by Jack Smith, which it always was to find possible irreproducibility, unconventional, and thus unkommerzialisierbare form for film.

Uzi Parnes, who cooperated in the eighties with Smith and Troyano, received in 1994 for her short film "Carmelita Tropicana," a Teddy Award in Berlin, braced themselves in this way, not least against the cinematic Ultrakonventionalität with which, paradoxically, especially the documentary of the queer This year's Berlinale program herumödeten. One example is known: James Razin "Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling," which makes the life of a glamorous Warhol drag superstar zusammenschnurren privatfernsehgerecht a tragic freak story.

Teddy awarded with a trophy on Friday night were finally Lisa Cholodenkos lesbian family comedy "The Kids Are All Right" (Best Feature), Pietro Marcello's La bocca del lupo "(Best Documentary) and James Franco's" The Feast of Stephen "(Best Short). Have become James Franco, Sean Penn's Lover already last year appeared in "Milk" and could be seen in this year's competition in "Howl" as Allen Ginsberg, seems to have fun out something like the gayest hetero Hollywood too.Congratulations!

The Audience Award at the Victory Column magazine was "Postcard to Daddy", a documentary by Michael Berliner of the floor on his firsthand experience sexual abuse by the father. Wieland Speck, director of the Panorama section, said, "Postcard to Daddy" was the first film to deal with the taboo subject of child abuse "authentic and unverlogen.

So far, so encouraging. Only the gala came - this time at the track triangle in the halls of "Station Berlin" - as in the last few years entertainerischen tragedy. It already started with the presentation: Because an evening gala was broadcast later on Arte, led once again completely impossible Arte Conférencier Annette Gerlach of the evening. They crossed the winners on stage with flat jokes and demonstrative pals, the teddy she either called "Deddy" or "Tetty. Even the appearance of Ton Steine Scherben Rio Reiser's honor, who would have turned this year 60, was a disaster. Not only the remaining shards members contributed to "Hold your love down" military hussar jackets, as if they would suddenly become the Sgt Pepper's band, also the choice of Ich + Ich singer Adel Tawil as a substitute Reiser was a bad mistake . Claudia Roth still felt provoked to standing ovations.

Klaus Wowereit, in his welcome address then consistently used the outdated terminology "gay and lesbian" instead of "queer", so dazzled by the many other teddy represented trans-, bi-and poly-out identities. After all, he gave the order then with the Special Teddy for his life's work honored Werner Schroeter, the through ball: In his moving acceptance speech, Schroeter noted how gratifying it was for the Teddy Award, now at 24 Given time, today it encompasses much more than just "Gay" and "Lesbian". There was a poetic appeal of the director, not to be satisfied with its achievements and not lose sight of social relationships.

What he meant to say was quite clear - only it was perhaps worded a little too elegant. The biggest cheers of the evening certainly echoed through the long hall, one of the Arte-cameramen zoomed in the audience to Rosa von Praunheim basketball lawn green jacket and the message of the blue and yellow buttons sparkled on his lapel on the large screens: "Gays against Guido."

THE SILENCE OF MARCEL DUCHAMP

BY ELA TROYANO & UZI PARNES

AT THE 60TH BERLINALE--FORUM EXPANDED

Thursday, Feb. 18 at 9pm @ Kino Arsenal 1

The title of this live film performance comes from a graffiti – the silence of Marcel Duchamp is overrated – found on a wall in an abandoned pier on the West Side Highway in New York City. The piers were a meeting ground for gay sexual encounters in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Partly in ruins, with long hallways, open rooms, broken windows, all surrounded by water, the piers were photographed, written about and filmed before they were torn down by the 90’s. The piers no longer occupy a physical space but they have since evolved into a historic artistic presence, becoming a metaphor for a shared past.

The performance includes music by John Zorn: Beuysblock, a portrait of the late artist Joseph Beuys. It begins with images of the pier, male torsos, cave like drawings, urinals, the Hudson River, a spectacle memorializes the creatures that inhabited the piers. Toy soldiers seen through broken shards of glass are a playful take on the „Uzi“ machine gun, referencing his expatriate Israeli and Jewish upbringing. His torn Barbie dolls and drag divas are superimposed on Troyano’s projections: a burst of fireworks and ballerina shadow play. What appears to be an image of a graphic fence is a projected fragment of a small mesh evening bag, one of the few things her mother was able to bring from her native La Habana, Cuba.

The Silence of Marcel Duchamp--Berlinale, Feb. 18 @ Arsenal, 9pm