Das neue Arsenal

On August 30^th, we are presenting a new film by Ute Aurand: DAS NEUE ARSENAL was commissioned by Arsenal Filminstitut and made during the one-year conversion of the Westhalle of silent green into a cinema auditorium. The film begins at a point when a certain amount of visionary power was still needed to imagine how the funeral chapel of this former crematorium could become a cinema. It ends with the first members of the audience entering the finished auditorium. We are screening the film with two previous works that Ute Aurand shot for Arsenal: FÜR KARL was made in 2012 for the retirement of our former distribution staff member Karl Winter. Ten years later, he passed away due to complications from Covid. ARSENAL FILMARCHIV 20.12.2022 was made in a single day, shortly before the old cardboard boxes covered in stickers previously used to store film rolls were replaced with unified plastic containers. But the film shows more than just the shelves that would eventually become its own home in the future: as the camera moves through the space from one film title to another, it makes the infinite diversity of lines of film historical connection visible. 

Program:
Für Karl Ute Aurand D 2012 16 mm silent 5 min.
Arsenal Filmarchiv 20.12.2022 Ute Aurand D 2022 16 mm silent 3 min.
Das neue Arsenal  Ute Aurand D 2026 16 mm silent 20 min.

DAS NEUE ARSENAL

Two statements on a new film by Ute Aurand

“When Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Artistic Director of the Arsenal Filminstitut) asked me if I’d like to accompany the construction of the new Arsenal cinema at silent green in Berlin Wedding by making a film, I liked the idea. I visited the construction site every six weeks and filmed how the interior of the future cinema was constructed in the former funeral chapel of the old crematorium with my 16 mm Bolex camera: the light walls suddenly turn dark, heavy metal constructions for the seating are installed, acoustic plates are screwed to the ceiling, the screen and projection booth are built, huge amounts of cabling are laid and finally the old seats from the Arsenal at Potsdamer Platz are fitted. Piece by piece, the funeral chapel is transformed into a cinema with 169 seats. It’s fascinating how much of the work required for this construction was carried out by hand. On May 3^rd, 2026, the cinema was opened in celebratory fashion." (Ute Aurand)

“There’s hardly any other activity that so obviously connects the concepts of nature and culture than the work on a construction site. Humans and materials enter into visible interaction: while construction is carried out, lighting conditions change, dust swirls, lines of sight are revealed or disappear. At times, the material resists human plans, particularly when they run counter to its own history. The effort of bringing forth something new from the old is written all over the workers despite their considerable experience, as is a sense of pleasure once they succeed.
Turning the funeral chapel of a crematorium, which was a listed building to boot, into a cinema was itself already like something from the movies. It was a colossal act that demanded considerable time. The flowers growing around the construction site became witnesses of what was happening. After flowering and then disappearing in the snow, they reappeared when the construction works were coming to an end and flowered again once the audience entered the space.
Another observer: Ute Aurand’s 16mm camera. Full of the same empathy that determines the atmosphere of both a funeral chapel and a cinema, she continually found her place on the construction site during the entire process and became directly involved in it herself.” (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus)