EMSCHERKUNST.2010 - artist duo M+M helps Ruhr families finding their identity

Which emotions are transported by the statement „I love you“ told by a father to his son, and what changes when the father tells his wife the same? 

The artist duo M+M, Martin de Mattia and Marc Weiss, are looking for an adequate setting for their current art film project in their hometown Munich: a film dealing with the quest for identity, epitomised by a Ruhr family.
 

Exploring the psyche of a Ruhr resident

The actual environment of the Ruhr (the digestion tower in Herne) as location for the presentation plays an important role. But for the shooting, the Ruhr as setting is not that relevant. Munich seems to have been chosen as film setting due to pragmatic, logistic reasons. 

The psychological rooms of the protagonists can also be revealed in another geographical surrounding.

M+M focus on a special objective: exploring the psyche of a Ruhr resident, revealing the emotions he has, pointing out his relation to the region (which may vary, dependent on the generation). After all, the main issue is the quest for identity in an area where "...the identity of landscape and society are totally changed every 20 years...".

In the centre of their psychogramme is a Ruhr family epitomising the marks structural change leaves on private life, displaying the history of de-industrialisation in a nutshell, exemplary for many past and present metropolises.
 

Related videos:

• Emscherkunst meets the German version of Punch & Judy
• Emscherkunst.2010 - An inspection by the artists / Part 1
• Emscherkunst.2010 - An inspection by the artists / Part 2
• Emscherkunst.2010 - The vision of the curator Florian Matzner
• Emscherkunst – Oberhausen Castle

Go to channel: 

• Emscherkunst.2010