Big Business and the making of Big Business, 2002

two videos and series of 8 photographs

Big Business is a remake of the slapstick Laurel and Hardy classic (USA, 1929) of the same name.The pair are Christmas tree salesmen and ring the doorbell of James Finlayson, who rather brusquely turns them away. An argument breaks out in the course of which Finlayson’s house, his piano and Stan and Ollie’s car are demolished. The film was shot on location with inmates of Waldheim Prison, in East Germany, and is shown here along with The Making of Big Business.

Camera: Frank Meyer
Sound recording: René Blümel
Production management: Holm Taddiken
Produced by: *.*, neufilm
Supported by Kunst im Gefängnis e.V., Sachsen LB

Big Business, 2002

Big Business is a remake of the slapstick Laurel and Hardy classic (USA, 1929) of the same name.The pair are Christmas tree salesmen and ring the doorbell of James Finlayson, who rather brusquely turns them away. An argument breaks out in the course of which Finlayson’s house, his piano and Stan and Ollie’s car are demolished. The film was shot on location with inmates of Waldheim Prison, in East Germany, and is shown here along with The Making of Big Business.

Digital video/DVD, 4:3, stereo, 25 min

Camera: Frank Meyer
Sound recording: René Blümel
Production management: Holm Taddiken
Produced by: *.*, neufilm
Supported by Kunst im Gefängnis e.V., Sachsen LB

© 2002 Germany

The Making of Big Business, 2002

The video comments on the shooting of the film Big Business in Waldheim Prison, Germany’s oldest prison. Along with interviews of inmates and the prison warden, the video also tells of the history of the place, the conditions of production and the everyday lives of the inmates confined there.

Digital video/DVD, 4:3, stereo, 27 min

Camera: René Blümel, Frank Meyer, Clemens von Wedemeyer
Voice: Maya Schweizer, Clemens von Wedemeyer
Produced by: *.*, neufilm

© 2002 Germany

Clemens von Wedemeyer, Big Business and The Making of Big Business, 2002, digital video/ DVD, 4:3, stereo, film still

Digital video/DVD, 4:3, stereo, 25 min

Clemens von Wedemeyer, Big Business, 2002, 8 C-Prints on aluminium / diasec, 49 x 60 cm

Exhibition History (Selection)

MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE (Group), 2010
DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG (Group), 2010
CONTEMPORARAY ART MUSEUM, SAINT LOUIS (Group), 2009
MOMA, NEW YORK (Group), 2007
JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION, DÜSSELDORF (Group), 2007
WATTIS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, SAN FRANCISCO (Group), 2007
SITE GALLERY, SHEFFIELD (Group), 2007
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, TAIPEI (Group), 2007
4TH BERLIN BIENNIAL FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (Group), 2006
CAC, BRÉTIGNY-SUR-ORGE, 2006
PS1 MOMA, NEW YORK, 2006
KÜNSTLERHAUS BREMEN (Group), 2005
KLOSTERFELDE, BERLIN (Group), 2005
KÖLNISCHER KUNSTVEREIN (Group), 2004
FIAC, PARIS, 2004
LANDESMUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND KULTURGESCHICHTE, MÜNSTER (Group), 2004
MUSEUM FÜR ANGEWANDTE KUNST, COLOGNE (Group), 2003

INDEX:

Anarchy

Prison

Resistance

Punishment

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Clemens von Wedemeyer

**Cast Behind You The Bones of Your Mother, 2015**

**Metropolis: Report from China, 2004-2006**

**Otjesd (Leaving) and the Making of Otjesd, 2005**

**Silberhöhe and die Siedlung (The New Estate), 2003-2004**

**Big Business and the making of Big Business, 2002**

**Occupation and the making of Occupation, 2002**

Biography

Clemens von Wedemeyer, born in 1974 in Göttingen, Germany, currently lives and works in Berlin and holds a professorship for media art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. The artist and filmmaker studied photography and media at the Fachhochschule Bielefeld and the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and graduated as Meisterschüler of Astrid Klein in 2005. Clemens von Wedemeyer participated in group shows such as the 1st Moscow Biennale (2005), the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006), Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2007, the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008) and dOCUMENTA (13) (2012). He had solo shows among others at MoMA PS1, New York, ARGOS Centre for Art and Media, Brussels, the Barbican Art Centre, London, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Hamburger Kunsthalle. “ESIOD 2015” premiered at the 66. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Berlinale) in 2016.

Most recently Wendemeyer´s work has been displayed in solo exhibitions such as Im Kontext der Sammlung: Clemens von Wendemeyer (Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz 2023) and BAKHMUT (Albertinum Dresden 2023).

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