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“STRATA” is the fifth hybrid of performance art and film by artist duo VestAndPage. It is a film of philosophical, poetic action shot in 2021, to be released in 2024. STRATA explores caves as proto-spaces for altered states and sites of knowledge-making and human becoming. It takes place in prehistoric Swabian Jura caves used by Ice Age humans for shelter about 33,000 to 43,000 years ago. At these finding sites of the oldest known examples of human figurative artworks, VestAndPage convene in an interdisciplinary gathering of contemporary artists and scientists to challenge central existential and social issues. The caves are the symbiotic realms to dance between embodiment and scrutiny, the unseen and the unforeseen, the oppressed and unspoken, the forgotten and the repressed.
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Coming together to look into the river of human civilisation and to share what they had found, the artists irradiate concepts of time, ecological intelligence and politics through performances for the camera. The film pinholes a perspective on a world where art, science and multiple voices and perspectives nourish each other in co-creative processes. Nestled inside the dark subsurfaces of the land, the artists confront romantically distorted images of nature and naturalness to dismantle consolidated narratives and aesthetics. The human body and stratified societies are tied in continuity to the geological, beheld through a lens of queer ecology.
A film of philosophical, poetic action, STRATA blends film and performance art to explore the fascinating history of caves as sites of knowledge-making and art creation. Through interdisciplinary processes, artists and researchers investigate the connection between the human body and the geological depth of subsurface environments. The project focuses on the prehistoric caves of the Swabian Jura, where Ice Age humans sought shelter and created the oldest known examples of human figurative sculptures. The caves are the symbiotic realms to dance between embodiment and scrutiny, the unseen and the unforeseen, the oppressed and unspoken, the forgotten and the repressed.
Coming together to look into the river of human civilisation and to share what they had found, the artists irradiate concepts of time, ecological intelligence and politics through performances for the camera. The film pinholes a perspective on a world where art, science and multiple perspectives nourish each other in co-creative processes. Nestled inside the dark subsurfaces of the land, the artists confront romantically distorted images of nature and naturalness to dismantle consolidated narratives and aesthetics. The human body and stratified societies are tied in continuity to the geological, beheld through a lens of queer ecology.
We don't go to a place to tell a story.
We go to a place to find the story.
Conceived, written, directed and produced by
Verena Stenke, Andrea Pagnes (VestAndPage)
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Director of Photography & Editor Verena Stenke​
Assistance, still photography Marcel Sparmann
Lighting director, cinematography daz disley
Cinematography Fenia Kotsopoulou
Sound design, audio arts Douglas Quin
Location sound Douglas Quin, Verena Stenke, Philipp Seitz
Set director, drone operator Giovanni Dantomio
Masks + Costume design VestAndPage, Balaustio
Text Andrea Pagnes Text editing Aisha Pagnes
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Artists
Aldo Aliprandi (Sound), Marianna Andrigo (Movement), Andreas Bauer Kanabas (Bass), Anguezomo Mba Bikoro (Performance), Giorgia De Santi (Performance), Francesca Fini (Performance), Nicola Fornoni (Performance), La Saula (Performance), Stephan Knies (Violin), Fenia Kotsopoulou (Movement), Boris Nieslony (Performance), Ralf Peters (Voice art), Enok Ripley (Performance), Sara Simeoni (Dance), Marcel Sparmann (Performance), VestAndPage (Performance), Susanne Weins (Voice art), PYUR (Music), Woob (Music).
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Scientific contributors
Nicolas Conard, Stefanie Kölbl, Kurt Wehrberger, Guido Bataille, Johannes Wittmann, Barbara Spreer, Bernhard Stumpfhaus, Rudolf Walter.
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A VestAndPage production, Germany, 2021/24
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the German Federal Government Commissioner of Culture and the Media.
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Realized in collaboration with the Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren, Museum Ulm, Cojote Outdoor, EntrAxis e.V., A.P.S. Studio Contemporaneo, Live Arts Cultures.
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With the support of UNESCO World Heritage: Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Alb, State Office for Cultural Heritage of Baden-Wuerttemberg, ForstBW, Blauwald GmbH & Co KG, Stadt Blaubeuren, City of Schelklingen, City of Grabenstetten, City of Asselfingen, Museum association Schelklingen, Urgeschichte Hautnah, Tress Gastronomie/Wimsener cave.
Thanks to to the University of Exeter Research Network Rock/Body: Performative Interfaces between the geologic and the body, especially Nigel Clarke, João Florêncio and Timothy Morton.