Shifting Sands – Christina Benz

concept

The visual artist Christina Benz invites writers and musicians to collaborate with her to develop short films that combine the art forms of drawing, poetry and music and explore their interactions.

The theme-giving working title "Life is too short" forms the starting point for fantastic, everyday or absurd stories. The stories are drawn by the artist with black sand and animated in stop-motion technique. Each film has its own voice, spoken by a Swiss author. They shape not only the narrative style, but also the concrete subject matter and tonality. Each film is accompanied by music composer. They give the respective film a very individual sound, which is created with a single instrument. Each of the narratives is created in close interaction between the disciplines of drawing, spoken language and music, creating a universe of its own.

«It’s very inspiring to work together with exciting personalities from the literature and music scene, whose work I greatly appreciate. The project serves as a research facility; I am particularly interested in the influence and leverage of spoken words and music in combination with my visual language.» Christina Benz

Presentations

In addition to the classic film exploitation, which focuses on international film festivals and a broadcast on Swiss television, we are very interested in presenting the films in different settings. The kick-off took place at Strauhof, Museum for Literature in Zurich, within the framework of a 'wild card'. The films were shown as a work-in-progress, alongside with a series of performances and interactions with the audience. Fulesee celebrated its festival premiere at the Solothurn Film Festival 2020. The three animated films were released in 2020/21 and were shown at international film festivals, including DOK Leipzig, Animateka, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Cinequest, etc. 'Fulesee' was awarded Best Animated Film at the Lake Placid Film Festival. All three short films were screened at the 'Züri liest' literature days for a week in the Kosmos cinemas (over 90 screenings) and later on Swiss television. The performative continuation of the project could not be realized as planned due to the pandemic. Later, in December 2023, Christina Benz and Nicole Johänntgen performed a live improvisation at the Kunsthaus Interlaken; 'vice versa' - saxophone solo by Nicole Johänntgen & live sand drawings by Christina Benz. 2024: All three films are currently shown at Play Suisse, the Streaming platform of Swiss Television.

Strauhof Zurich

Strauhof Zurich: exhibition view 'G'

Strauhof Zurich: exhibition view 'Fulesee'

Strauhof Zurich: exhibition view 'Berta, however Jonas, but Mrs. Wohlgemut'

Strauhof Zurich: performance Nicole Johänntgen

Strauhof Zurich: work-in-progress reading Gion Mathias Cavelty, music Nicole Johänntgen, images Christina Benz

Strauhof Zurich: making-of-room

Strauhof Zurich: artist talk Christina Benz in conversation with Riikka Tauriainen and ETH students

Strauhof Zurich: Salonpalaver with guests

Strauhof Zurich: work-in-progress reading Judith Keller, images Christina Benz

Strauhof Zurich: performance Die Astronauten (Patric Marino & Oli Kuster), images Christina Benz

Photos: © Riikka Tauriainen / Christina Benz

Solothurner Filmtage: Press Conference, Houdini

Solothurner Filmtage: Reithalle

crew & credits

Direction and animations

 Christina Benz, visual artist and initiator of the project, lives and works in Zurich. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College in London and gained a Master of Arts at Zurich University of the Arts. Focussing on the moving image, Christina Benz’ video projects and installations are shown at international galleries, art fairs and festivals. www.christinabenz.ch

Contributing authors and musicians

Gion Mathias Cavelty, writer and satirist based in Zurich, writes literary texts for various media as a columnist. His fantastic Andouillette trilogy was broadcast as a radio play by the SRF in 2017. www.nichtleser.com

Fatima Dunn, cellist, songwriter and composer from Zurich creates her own sound worlds as One Woman Orchestra, in 2018 she released her new CD „Birds and Bones“. www.fatimadunn.com

Judith Keller, writer, lives in Zurich, where her 2017 book „Die Fragwürdigen“ plays, the chapters navigate the readership along the tram stations through the city. www.menschenversand.ch

Nicole Johänntgen, saxophonist and composer based in Zurich, but most of the time she tours the world, for example with ‚Henry II‘. Her quartet ‚Nicole Jo‘ released her seventh CD. www.nicolejohaenntgen.com

Patric Marino & Oli Kuster: Die Astronauten. The electro poetry duo merges Berndeutsch texts and electronic beats to poetry: Patric Marino lives and works in Zurich as a spoken word poet and author (Nonno spricht, 2012). Oli Kuster, lives and works in Bern as a pianist and composer (ZüriWest, AEIOU, Oli Kuster Kombo and others). www.dieastronauten.ch

Production and Postproduction

Marco Leisi is producer and co-owner of the production company THE BAND GmbH, Zurich. www.theband.cc

Christof Steinmann works as a sound designer for animation, feature and documentary films, is a partner in the film sound studio Magnetix, Zurich and teaches sound design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. www.magnetix.ch

Christine Rüfenacht is responsible for editing and compositing. She is co-owner of the production company THE BAND GmbH, Zurich. www.theband.cc

Anna van Ommen works in Bath as a bilingual copywriter/conceptualist. She writes the language adaptations for Shifting Sands. www.avanommen.co.uk

Co-produced by SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Gabriela Bloch.

This project is supported by: Zürcher Filmstiftung, SRF SRG SSR, Bundesamt für Kultur, Aargauer Kuratorium, Strauhof, Erna und Curt Burgauer Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Magnetix Tonstudio.