Susan Sontag - Screen Tests by Andy Warhol at ajh.pm Artspace
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When a glance becomes a filmic sculpture
At the ajh.pm Artspace in Bielefeld, two key figures of the American avant-garde meet: the essayist Susan Sontag and the pop art artist Andy Warhol. The video installation presents all seven Screen Tests, recorded by Warhol in 1964 of the then 31-year-old Sontag, for the first time in Germany.
Susan Sontag between observation and self-representation
The short, silent 16mm film portraits show Susan Sontag in different facets: thoughtful, distanced, playful, and provocative. Warhol forgoes classic directing instructions and instead makes the encounter between the camera and the portrayed person itself the subject of art. In light slow motion, the examination of the work evolves into a concentrated aesthetic experience.
Andy Warhol's radical form of portraiture
The Screen Tests were created in Warhol's Factory in New York and expand the tradition of portraiture by dimension of time. The face is not merely depicted, but experienced as a moving surface, as presence, and as a psychological resonance space. Small changes in facial expression, posture, light, and gaze direction gain an intense significance.
Film art, pop art, and cultural education
The installation leads into central questions of contemporary art: What does it mean to be seen? How do photography and film change our perception of reality? And where does the boundary between representation and appropriation lie? Susan Sontag's thoughts on art, aesthetics, and pop culture form an important art-historical resonance space.
An exhibition in the rhythm of darkness
The video is shown daily at dusk until midnight in a continuous loop in the outdoor area. Every Wednesday from 7 to 9 pm, the space is open. This creates a special exhibition atmosphere, in which the fleeting medium of film merges with the nighttime environment of the Artspace.
Conclusion: A rare art experience in Bielefeld
The video installation opens an unusually direct access to Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and the conditions of the modern image. Art enthusiasts experience a precisely curated encounter from painting, film, and media history that invites close observation. Those who wish to directly grasp the aesthetic experience of Warhol's moving portraits and Sontag's intellectual presence should visit this exhibition live at the ajh.pm Artspace.
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