The Importance of Grammar, Part IV

Fokus Figur: 30 Jahre Die Galerie / Focus Figure: 30 Years of Die Galerie.

(Bilingual catalog [G&E], hardcover, 144 pages. With shorts texts by Corneille, Klaus Zylla, Franz Hitzler, Volker Stelzmann, Eckhard Kremers, Sandra Brandels Crawford, Heiner Meyer, Joram Harel, Roberta Baj, Tony Swaanswijk, Hans Brockstedt, Daniel Boulakia, Jane Sung, Ingeborg Flagge, Daiga Upeniece, Volker Hauff, Jürgen Jeske, Marika de Feo and others.]

André Masson, Femme tenant un oiseau 
(1924, oil on canvas, 55.2 x 33 cm)

The exhibition Focus Figure: 30 Years of Die Galerie ran from 2 Sept. – 7 Nov. 2009 at Die Galerie, Frankfurt, and included the work of approx. 40 artists.

To quote the press release:

"When founded in 1979, the initial focus of DIE GALERIE was on printed works. Since then, DIE GALERIE has evolved into an internationally active art dealership of high-quality art of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. […] DIE GALERIE moved into its prestigious space in the Frankfurt Westend in 1995, and the change of location was accompanied by a change of activities. Since then, the gallery has concentrated on gallery work, presentations at international art fairs, and the communication between artists, collectors and museums. […] When it comes to the representation of the interests of his artists, Peter Femfert cooperates with galleries in (among other places) France, Italy and Spain, takes advantage of an international network of connections, supplies his exhibitions to prestigious institutions or uses his enthusiasm and persistence to instigate sensational exhibitions […]."

Pierre Alechinsky, L’Âge d’orange

(1970, acrylic on paper on canvas, 115 x 151 cm)

"The thematic centre that bonds all activities of DIE GALERIE is the presentation of the figure, the visual exploration of the topic of mankind in its most varied shapes and forms. Indeed, the identity of a gallery is defined much more by the art and character of 'its' artists than by the sum of its activities. In this way DIE GALERIE has developed a face, a distinctive physiognomy, which reflects the signs of its age with pride and a portion of humor."

Robert Combas, Le Guépard rayé

 (2007, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 205 cm)

"And exactly that will be obvious to see at the anniversary exhibition FOCUS FIGURE […]. All artists of DIE GALERIE are involved and will be present, either in person or represented by their art work. The exhibition takes you from the obsessed figures of André Masson to Max Ernst's alter ego Loplop; from Jean Dubuffet's 'raw' friends, Karel Appel's wind-twisted forms, Corneille's sensual women, Lucebert's gnomes, Rudolf Hausner's self-portraits, Valerio Adami's characters of the Old Testament and Emilio Tadini's fairytale figures to the contemporary representation of the figure: the emotive of Dieter Hacker, the vulnerable of Eckhard Kremers, the shrill of Heiner Meyer, the audacious of Klaus Zylla, the voiceless of Volker Stelzmann, the melancholic of Igor Mitoraj and the angularly chiseled of Dietrich Klinge."

All art images taken from the gallery's press release.

Iceland's Artists and Sagas / Islands Künstler und die Sagas (2011)

(Documentary, 52 min, HD, 2011; A Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion in coproduction with ZDF, Navigator Film, RUV, ORF and Swiss Television, in cooperation with ARTE. Idea und concept, Helga Brekkan & Annette Brüggemann; direction, Helga Brekkan.)
Sometime in 2010, I translated the voiceover text for this documentary into English. Released in 2011, Iceland's Artists and the Sagas is narrated by the talented actress and voiceover artist, Priscilla Bergey, whom I am more than willing to recommend to anyone in need of a narrator for a film project.
To simply quote the Gebrueder Beetz press release: "Frosty glaciers and hot springs, dark winter days and bright summer nights – Iceland is a country of the extremes. Not only is the nature in Iceland astonishing: ancient sagas, crime stories, eccentric video art, and enigmatic music are a testimonial for the country's unique art scene. The small island in the Atlantic Ocean is not just a geological hotspot, but also a creative one. In times like these, with the impacts of the global financial crisis visible everywhere in Iceland, the values of these cultural resources become evident. The bubble of fast money has burst, but people still have their fantasy, their poetry and their ability to tell a good tale to hold on to. After all, it was Icelandic sagas that gave birth to the hero, the story of an individual human being, long before the first European medieval romance thought of it. […] The documentary Iceland's Artists and the Sagas not only gives an insight into the creative energy of the country; following the steps of some of Iceland's most famous artists, writers and musicians, it also explores the very nature of this creativity that drives and defines an entire country."

Iceland’s Artists and Sagas 
from gebrueder beetz filmproduktion on Vimeo.

The Breeding of a Super Race (2009)

(Documentary film, 52 min., by Boris Rabin aka Boris Karadzhev; a German-Russian co-production of  arte, Lichtfilm, Mirumir and MDR.)

When I translated a treatment for this documentary in 2008 for Lichtfilm GmbH, Cologne, the working title was still Creating a New Human Race in the Soviet Union / Menschenlabor Sowjetunion; the latter, the German title, seems to have been retained.

Oddly enough, at Lichtfilm, the website proclaims the English title as The Breading of a Super Race, a title given after my involvement and that makes me think of Cannibal Kiev. (Is the reference too obscure to be understood?) In any event, the title does not seem to appear on the DVD cover, as one can see above, or in the film credit sequence

First 8.5 Minutes –
in German:

The film description at Lichtfilm's website, like most of their film descriptions, was probably supplied by Google Translator — Abraham Translations definitely did NOT do it. It seems to be the description used everywhere on-line, and is such a damning example of "Denglish" (Deutsch + English = Denglish) that we won't use it here.

In short, The Breeding of a Super Race documents and traces the various aspects of the Soviet Union's attempts, following the death of Lenin, to create a "new man", be it for use as a soldier during war, for hard labor, or for laboratory testing. Aspects touched upon in the film include cross-breeding between man and ape, rejuvenation by blood transfer, fixing conditional reflexes to genes, and artificially inseminating women by the sperm of geniuses.

The Slumbers

Here's something that I worked on briefly: I translated a detailed project description to it way back in 2013.

Normally, as the project hasn't been realized yet, I wouldn't present it here due to reasons of client confidentiality (which is golden here at Abraham Translations). BUT: the production firm itself, Bastei-Media, already has all the info I supply here on their own website, and all I'm doing it reiterating information they themselves have already made public about the project. They even supply some nice illustrations to The Slumbers, one of which is found above, at their webpage to the project.

To simply supply a loose English translation of the German description of the project found on the website: "The Slumbers. You think you know all about fairytales — but you've never heard of Morraga, Agrapok, and Sobothan? Then it's time for you to discover the world of the Slumbers! Fairytales as we know them only offer half the truth. The true heroes are not Snow White, the Frog Prince, or Sleeping Beauty's prince. The real heroes are the Slumbers! For they possess the unique ability to make all wishes reality ... providing there are enough of them around. But the evil witch Morraga wants to seize the power of granting wishes all for herself and become the ruler of the Kingdom of Fairytales. And she is close to succeeding. Were there not Agrapok, the littlest of all Slumbers. Joining forces with two children from the world of humans, Agrapok undertakes to defeat the witch Morraga and her evil spirits. The Slumbers is an interactive story universe in which the [animated] series, game, and book merge to create an exciting adventure."