Die Untoten, 2020

Die Untoten (The Undead, 2020) was produced by Tobias Zielony for the public art project Gegenwarten in Chemnitz. In the style of a short B-movie, Zielony stages a violent showdown between two disgustingly dull zombies and two noble martial arts heroes dressed in slim blue onesies who finally break the neck of their opponents. The location caries a serious history. The National Socialist Underground (NSU) - a right wing terror group - lived in Chemnitz for some time and built up a dense network of supporters. Racism and right-wing violence are not over with the end of the NSU. The revenants and undead of right-wing extremist terror encounter a resistance in Zielony‘s film, which stands up to the zombies in spectacular and acrobatic battle scenes. It‘s as comic-like as it is saturated with reality, but the satisfaction about the victory of good over evil only lasts as long as the film starts all over again as it is looped.

Die Untoten (2020) produzierte Zielony für das Projekt Gegenwarten im öffentlichen Raum von Chemnitz. Im Stile eines kurzen B-Movies inszeniert Zielony den gewaltsamen Showdown zwischen zwei ekeligen, dumpfen Zombies und zwei in schlanke blaue Bodies gekleideten Held*innen der eleganten Kampfkunst, die ihren Kontrahenten schließlich das Genick brechen. Der Drehort ist pikant. Der Nationalsozialistische Untergrund (NSU) hat lange in Chemnitz gelebt und ein dichtes Unterstützer*innennetzwerk aufgebaut. Rassismus und rechte Gewalt sind mit dem Ende des NSU nicht vorbei. Die Widergänger und Untoten rechtsextremen Terrors treffen in Zielonys Film auf eine Gegenwehr, die in spektakulären und akrobatischen Kampfszenen den Zombies Paroli bieten. Das ist so comichaft wie realitätsgesättigt, aber die Genugtuung über den Sieg des Guten über das Böse währt nur so lange wie der Film – ein Loop – von vorne beginnt.

single channle HD video, 6:15 min, color, sound
edition of 8 + 2AP

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Tobias Zielony

**Untitled (Łódź, Warsaw, Narva), 2023**

**Das was euch am Leben hält, ist was bei uns zu Asche zerfiel, 1997–2005**

Biography

Tobias Zielony is known for his photographic depictions of young people living on the fringes of affluent societies and social acceptance. For the past 20 years, Zielony has focused on suburban milieus that, from Canada to England, Ukraine, Israel, and Japan, have in common that they have fallen out of the promises of modernity's progress and are establishing a temporary life in their own cultural niches. What goes hand in hand with melancholy at the same time reveals a great human tenderness in the cohesion of precarious communities, which Zielony approaches and gives the space to stage themselves. In the process, Zielony's critical approach to documentary manifests itself in a specific aesthetic and relationship to fiction. His numerous institutional exhibitions include the German Pavilion in Venice 2015. Tobias Zielony is a professor in Hamburg since 2022.

Zielony´s work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions recently such as Watching TV in Narva (KOW Berlin 2023), Dark Data (Marta Herford 2022) and Touch. Politiken der Berührung (EMOP Berlin, c/o Amtsalon 2023), Nach August Sander Menschen des 21. Jahrhunderts (Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen 2022).

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