EBBA ROHWEDER
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PERFORMANCE

IMPROVISATION

COMPOSITION


PROJECTS

EXHIBITIONS

VIDEO

longing
2022

The first wave
2020

From Banishment to Banishment
Homage to María Zambrano
2019

BUNT
2017


spaces + times
2016


Fritz
2016

Landscape II
2014

Shortfilms
2011 and 2014

Documentaries
2011-2013

Intertitle
2008-2011

Autobiography
2008-2009

Landscape I
2006-2007

Videocomposition II
2006

Videocomposition I
2004-2005

BIOGRAPHY

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FRITZ GOING OUT

2016 / 35 min / 4:3

The video Fritz going out follows our dog's walks through the countryside with the camera. My voice-over tells the story of his first appearance in the village, of his arrival in the city later on and of the relationship established throughout the time we live together.

For some reason I had never established such a deep relationship with another animal as with our dog Fritz. His story is connected with my memories of animals from my childhood, my youth up to the present.

From hindsight it is clear: Fritz has changed me. And he has changed me by looking at the animal world, the animated world, the non-human world and even the human world. Thanks to Fritz.

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still from the video Fritz going out


Our dog's name is Fritz. One day two years ago he appeared in the village, still a puppy of about a year old. He approached everyone to say hello, but always in a submissive and frightened attitude.

He had a special look. He was lost or abandoned and it was clear that he was looking for a master. He was very thin and the people in the village gave him food. But nobody wanted to keep him. Neither did we and even less thinking that we would soon have to go back to the city.

But at the end of October the cold and the rain started. I slept badly all night thinking about the poor animal all alone out there. The next night we let him sleep in the entrance of our house. But there he dirtied everything and tore the door. So we decided to let him in the living room. That was the solution and there were no more problems.


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still from the video Fritz going out


I started to see the city through his eyes: the noises, the traffic, the smells, the many people, dogs of all kinds, tied up, in the park. Everything could be frightening and threatening. It was a new experience, also for us. We were lucky that he was already housebroken. He never soiled or touched anything in the house, not even the open food in the kitchen. He was extremely careful in the rooms. And he never barked. For a long time we didn't know what his voice was like.

Every morning when he woke up he made you a party of joy. Likewise when you come home. He is always happy to see you and to let you pet him. He is grateful for everything and never seems to be in a bad mood.

He is very sensitive and expresses all his emotions at the same moment. His reactions are direct, instinctive and totally subjective. He is not at all rancorous. And his loyalty knows no bounds.

I never suspected that I could relate to an animal in such an emotional and deep way. It is unconditional love. An animal love.

 

FRITZ - a shortfilm

2016 / 1:20 min / 4:3

FRITZ - a shortfilm, 2016


"It is the road that is better called a path
, a footpath, a trail, or a towpath, the road received by man and only widened, when it can be widened, smoothed by dint of being travelled. The path that is opened up by an accident of the ground and always by the path of an animal.
(...)
That of the secret wisdom of the beast, which corresponds to its knowledge and its bodily possibilities, to its powerful lightness, to the fineness of its senses, of its hooves, and which highlights its quality as the proper inhabitants of the earth; as if they, the beasts, were its inhabitants, its masters, while man, arrived later, always later, is only its resident and, finally, its strange dominating guest. As if man had arrived, a helpless invader, one day, to unfold immediately his ineluctable necessity, raised to the will of empire".

(cit.: María Zambrano, Notas de un método, Editorial Tecnos, 2011)


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still from the video Fritz going out

In the meantime Fritz lived with us and accompanied us on our walks. The day was approaching when we had to return to Madrid. I still remember it perfectly: We arrived in Madrid in the evening. As we entered the city he was irritated by the thousands of lights. Just as he got out of the car there was a huge crash - someone had pulled down the metal shutter of a shop window right next to us.

As in the village, he wanted to follow his custom of greeting everyone - something ridiculous in the centre of Madrid with so many people. Our arrival coincided with a cleaning strike - everything was full of rubbish. Everything smelled and had to be investigated.

fritz saliendo 4still from the video Fritz going out