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In a cinema showcase, 36 BZ front pages become art. Gerd Conradt (80) created the installation “Das Kino, die BZ und der Tod” for “Klick”. It is the eye-catcher in the neighborhood.
“For 20 years I have been collecting BZ headlines that deal with death, murder or dying,” reports the conceptual artist and well-known documentary filmmaker (“Blaubeerwald”). “The front pages are obituaries, farewells, appraisals, and sensational reports. But above all historical documents. They remind of lived life. “
The oldest editions are from 1976 and 1980. They are the death reports of Mao and John Lennon.
Conradt: “Some headlines are like poetry. For example, on the death of Helmut Schmidt: ‘Smoke in peace, old Chancellor’, or the empty sofa for Loriot. When the Pope died in 2005, the BZ printed just one word: Amen. Great.”
It is also no coincidence that the BZ artwork hangs in the “Klick” cinema on Windscheidstrasse. “Through the film you can watch death at work,” said the French director Cocteau once. “Because the cinema often has death as its theme.”
The Kiez-Kino, founded in 1911, has been closed since November, like everyone else in Berlin. It should finally start again shortly. Then what do you do with the work of art? Conradt says: “It would actually belong in the new Berlin exhibition in the Berlin Palace.”
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