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The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009-2010

video

GermanEnglish

“The Los Angeles River–Project“ explores-in the format of a feature length film-the complex political discussion of the river’s status and the environmental and social impact of being corralled into a flood control system over seventy years ago. The conflict is manifested by the river‘s unclear and unresolved definition. (...) This film is an investigation into the urban landscape, and develops along this frontier of the socialized wilderness, taking into account technology and planning, the command of nature and its demarcation with the urban, as reflected through the stateless person who inhabits this denaturalized and destroyed environment. Despite these extremes the two protagonists with very different backgrounds and reference systems, meet at the riverbank; whilst the scientist Brent takes water samples and monitors the river‘s local wildlife, he encounters the homeless Marvin and begins to investigate his survival strategy.

“The Los Angeles River–Project“ explores-in the format of a feature length film-the complex political discussion of the river’s status and the environmental and social impact of being corralled into a flood control system over seventy years ago. The conflict is manifested by the river‘s unclear and unresolved definition. (...) This film is an investigation into the urban landscape, and develops along this frontier of the socialized wilderness, taking into account technology and planning, the command of nature and its demarcation with the urban, as reflected through the stateless person who inhabits this denaturalized and destroyed environment. Despite these extremes the two protagonists with very different backgrounds and reference systems, meet at the riverbank; whilst the scientist Brent takes water samples and monitors the river‘s local wildlife, he encounters the homeless Marvin and begins to investigate his survival strategy.

Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1

Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)
Mario Pfeifer, The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009, 35 mm film, HD projection, color, Dolby SR 5.1 (film still)

  • INDEX:

Mario Pfeifer

Deserted – Episode 1, 2023
Cell 5 – A Reconstruction, 2022
Cell 5 – 800° Celsius: Act I, 2021
BLACK/WHITE/GREY, 2020
Again - Live, 2019
BACKWAYS, 2019
Again / Noch Einmal, 2018
Point of No return, 2017
Über Angst und Bildung, Enttäuschung und Gerechtigkeit, Protest und Spaltung in Sachsen / Deutschland, 2016-ongoing
Corpo Fechado, 2016
#blacktivist, 2016
#blacktivist, 2015
Approximation in the digital age to a humanity condemned to disappear, 2015
Approximation in the digital age to a humanity condemned to disappear, 2014-2015
Textile Works, 2014
Taxi Sticker Art, 2012
A Formal Film in Nine Episodes, Prologue & Epilogue, 2010
CODE UNKNOWN [Re_Sync], Notes on a film excerpt, 2010
The Los Angeles River-Project, 2009-2010
Reconsidering The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974/ 2009
Yet Untitled (Pieces of Nature), 2008
Untitled (Two Guys), 2008

Mario Pfeifer was born in 1981 in Dresden, Germany. His work explores representational structures and conventions in the medium of film, in locations ranging from Mumbai to California to the Western Sahara. Conceiving each project out of a specific cultural situation, he researches social-political backgrounds and weaves further cross-cultural art historical, filmic and political references into a richly layered practice, ranging from film and video installations to photographs and text installations. Often, Pfeifer collaborates on publications that reconsider these projects, offering research materials and critical investigations by writers and thinkers of related fields, concerning issues suggested in his projects for a wider social-political discussion. After his studies in Leipzig (HGB) and Berlin (UDK), Pfeifer graduates from Willem de Rooij's class at Städelschule Frankfurt in 2008. He is a Fulbright fellow in Los Angeles (California Institute of the Arts) in 2008/09. Further grants and projects lead him to Bangkok, Mumbai, Marrakesh, Beirut, Tierra del Fuego, Santiago de Chile, and New York. Mario participated in the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018), the 11th Bienal do Mercosul (2017), the 3° Montevideo Bienal (2016) as well as the 4th Marrakesh Biennal (2012). Survey exhibitions took place in 2016 at the GfZK Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig and in 2019 at The Power Plant Toronto. In 2019 IDFA commissioned the first performance work AGAIN – Live which premiered at Amsterdam's Pakhuis de Zwijger. Pfeifer lives in Berlin and Dresden. In 2023 Pfeifer was awarded the Hessian Film- and Cinema award in the categorie "Best Short Film" for "Zelle 5 - Eine Rekonstruktion".



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