Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
Beautiful People #1 shows a businessman talking to a ‘pal’ in a hotel lobby. He is explaining that women from ‘down there’ are wearing burka because they are so fucking ugly. In his eager, to explain, what is actually going on under the ‘disguise’ the man’s mind drifts out in sexual fantasies and wishes. It is prejudice but it’s also about the attraction towards the mystery (darkness) of the unknown – this world that is a complete secrecy for him.
Jannicke Låker (born in Norway) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Jannicke Låker is one of the very few Norwegian artists who have consistently worked with video and developed the media into a powerful tool, using low-tech video language as a starting point.
Artist statement: In my works I often use, together with humor, heavy subject matters as racism, sexual violation, power games between people etc, but common for all my videos is the intention to reveal the human behind the actions, often something intimate, private or banal -that’s the motive power behind the work. But as well as exposing the actors I also expose the director and her motive behind, and the actions in, the work. The videos is based on simple scripts with an exact physical setting that builds the frames which allows me to improvise during the production.
‘It is in the videos in which the artist herself is directly involved, either in front or behind the camera, that the expression is most powerful. Here, Låker shows a devil-may-care attitude, which has made her one of the most interesting and exciting Norwegian video artists’.
