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Yours, KOW

Report, 2016

Video installation

Cinematographically, Report (2016) is perhaps the most complex of Friedl’s film installations. The source text is A Report to an Academy (1917), Franz Kafka’s short story about Red Peter, an ape who reports on his experience of becoming human. Set in the National Theatre in Athens, twenty-four performers—mostly amateur actors—appear on stage and recite extracts from Kafka’s monological text, either in their own first languages or in languages of their choice, including Arabic, Dari, English, French, Greek, Kurdish, Russian, and Kiswahili. German, the text’s original language, and subtitles are deliberately left out. What unites the people on stage are their physical presence, gestures, speech, and the fact that many of them came to Greece in the wake of recent immigration movements.

Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill
Peter Friedl, Report, 2016, Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD), Color, sound, Duration: 32:03 min., loop, Aspect ratio: 16:9, Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917), Edition of 4 + 2 AP, ​​​​​​​Produced by documenta 14, videostill

Single-channel video installation (XDCAM HD)
Color, sound
Duration: 32:03 min., loop
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Based on A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (1917)

Artist and director: Peter Friedl
Director of photography: Giorgos Karvelas
Sound: Vasilis Gerodimos
Executive Producer: Karinia Stylou

With Emenike Anayo Anderson, Hana Al Shateri, Dimitri Ramin Sakellariou, Emily Muthoni, Jamila Mousavi Shakoor, Seied Hamid Mousavi, Eleni Diop Galata, Lina Tabbara, Nikolay Baev, Violette Ngoma, Roba Safar Alrefaie, Sona Omidi, Maan Halaoui, Cyrille Narcisse Fabo Tchoumi, Peter Michael Depian, Berivan Shamo, Bashar Shamo, Zahra Banshi, Maria Kallimani, Yang Kouei Fank, Esther Andre Gonzalez, Mohammed Dawlat Yar, Sultanah Mousa, Fotis Rozinos

Editing: Stanislaw Milkowski, Peter Friedl
Post Production: Concept AV, Berlin
Assistant to artist: Daphni Antoniou
1st camera operator: Lefteris Agapoulakis
2nd camera operator: Kalliopi Perdika
Gaffer: Nikos Mouzakis
Casting: Kelly Karahaliou, Yannis Arvanitis, Demode_Video Cinema
Production manager: Sokratis Konstantinidis
Production coordination: Mando Arvaniti, Stella Alisanoglou
Production assistants: Vaggelis Kaliakatsos, Andreas Koumoutsakos, Nikos Zisis
Catering: Sotoris Marneras

Thanks to Chalil Alizada, Hossain Amiri, Stefanos Gerodoukos, Yazan Jeratli, Mariam Kasem, Alan Mousa, Alla Nammoura, Fourough Taheri for their important assistance
Special thanks to Marianna Pana, National Theatre of Greece, Athens

Commissioned and produced by documenta 14

  • INDEX:

Peter Friedl

No prey, no pay, 2018–19
Teatro Popular, 2016–17
Report, 2016
Teatro (Report), 2016–18
Study for Social Dreaming, 2014–17
The Dramatist (Black Hamlet, Crazy Henry, Giulia, Toussaint), 2013
Rehousing, 2012–2019
Bilbao Song, 2010
The Children, 2009
Liberty City, 2007
The Zoo Story, 2007
Postcards, 2007
No Photography, 2004
Home Tree Home, 2002
King Kong, 2001
Tiger und Löwe, 2000
Dream City, 1999
Untitled (San Diego), 1999
Peter Friedl, 1998
Untitled, 1998
Index on Censorship I-V, 1998
KINO, 1997
Dummy, 1997
La Bohème, 1997
MOB, 1997
Playgrounds, 1995–2021
Untouched, 1995–97
Untitled, 1993
Theory of Justice, 1992–2010
The Diaries, 1981–ongoing
Untitled, 1971
Drawings, 1964–ongoing

Peter Friedl is a classic of contemporary art. The three-time documenta participant, born in 1960, can be considered a notorious participant in discourse - because his work has always understood how to address major themes in such a way that they found and find new forms away from the canon and mainstream. Forms that run counter to power and domination, subvert them, escape them.... and confront them in the process. Friedl takes away from history - for example colonialism or modernity, its paradigms and institutions - the power to define what is connected and how, and with an almost innocent-seeming aesthetic he tells a different story about humans and historical actions than we are used to and may find opportune. Peter Friedl provokes that which dominates us, including our own thinking. Throughout the years he his work has been displayed in meaningful solo exhibitions, most recently Teatro Popular (KOW Berlin, 2023), Report 1964-2022 (KW Berlin 2022) and No Prey, No Pay (Guido Costa Projects Turin, 2021) and major group exhibitions such as Life, Without Buildings, Gta exhibitions (ETH Zurich 2022), Das Auto rosi aber (KOW Berlin 2022) and Komunikazion - Inkomunikazio (Tabakalera, Centre for Contemporary Art, San Sebastian 2021).



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