Lutz Dammbeck

In fall 1984, Lutz Dammbeck and five other young Leipzig artists secretly organized the sensational exhibition they called 1. Leipziger Herbstsalon (FIRST LEIPZIG AUTUMN SALON) in protest of official art exhibitions and failed reforms in the East German art market. The private exhibition lasted almost a month and challenged the authority of cultural officials. This film shows original footage, shot by cinematographer Thomas Plenert, of the artists...

In 1996, the FBI captured American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor and anarchist author Ted Kaczynski (aka: The Unabomber) who understood himself to be battling the increasing technologization of the world. In the mid-20th century, a host of intellectual developments-including cybernetics and systems theory, multimedia art, new concepts of psychology and military research-came to the fore and became relevant in influencing and...

At the Vienna Art Academy in 1994, an unidentified person painted over 27 works by Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer in black. Rainer had become world-famous for his abstract art and, in particular, for his over-layering of photographs and overpainting of his own and other artists' works. But who painted over the "overpainter"? Speculation rages: Did he attack his works himself? A year later, an unsigned letter surfaces claiming responsibility for the...

Young DUKE ERNEST wants to become a good knight, but circumstances are not in his favor. The Emperor-who wants to claim the Duke's castle and marry his mother-has Ernest wrongfully accused of murder and jailed. The only way to escape death is to enlist and go in search of the legendary Carbuncle Stone. Along the way, Ernest encounters carnivorous rocks, magnetic mountains, the giant bird Roc and many fantastical adventures. Dammbeck worked on this...

After Dammbeck's original film project Herakles (Hercules) was rejected by the East German DEFA Studios in 1983-84, the artist was still fascinated by the Hercules story. He started experimenting with different media combinations, including overpainting, photography, film clips, collage, painting and movement. These experiments resulted in groundbreaking multi-media collaborations and in the film THE CAVE OF HERCULES, in which Dammbeck explores a...

For the 1977 intermedia exhibition Tangenten I (Tangents I), Dammbeck and co-organizer, sculptor and painter Frieder Heinze had planned to collaborate on a film that would combine non-camera animation with 35mm footage of a train ride between the two Dresden districts of Radebeul and Pieschen. When Tangents I was banned, Heinze turned to other projects, but Dammbeck continued working on the film by himself. METAMORPHOSES I-the first experimental film...