German Film, Art Scholars Coming to Emerson

A conceptual drawing of Mischa Kuball's Para, one of two collaborations between Emerson College and scholars from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany.

The School of the Arts and the Visual and Media Arts Department will launch a pair of collaborations with the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany, on February 26 and 27.

On Friday, February 26, 6:00–8:00 pm, Professor Hans-Ulrich Reck, rektor of the Academy of Media Arts (Kunsthochschule für Medien, KHM), will present a screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone (1961) in the Bright Family Screening Room at the Paramount Center.

Then, on Saturday, February 27, after dark, Para, a video installation created by Mischa Kuball, international conceptual artist and assistant professor at KHM, will open at 555 Washington Street. The display will be on view through April 10.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of the scholarly expertise and artistic imagination of two faculty members from the KHM, one of Europe’s distinguished media art colleges. These events mark a first step in a proposed series of collaborations with the two colleges that will expand upon the offerings of both schools to the students and faculty,” said Joseph D. Ketner II, Foster Chair in Contemporary Art and distinguished curator-in-residence.

Reck, an internationally recognized scholar on Pier Paolo Pasolini, will introduce Accattone, which follows a pimp whose life takes a downward turn after his prostitute is imprisoned. It is Pasolini’s first film, and illustrates his idea of film not as a representation of reality, but as reality itself. Reck will discuss this formative film at an event co-sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Boston.

Kuball’s art investigates the psychological elements of people’s interaction with urban space. For Para, Kuball has recorded nighttime images of office buildings, corporate campuses, and residential condos throughout the world, which will illuminate a vacant office floor across from the Paramount Urban Screen.

Both the film screening in the Bright Family Screening Room and the video installation exhibit at Paramount Urban Screen are free and open to the public.