FREAK ORLANDO

Solo Exhibition

DAAD-Galerie, Kurfürstenstr.58, Berlin

Opening on 12.11.1981 at 9 pm

Curator: Toni Stoss

Performance with Jacalyn Carley on 13.11.1981

"In the form of a little theatre of the world, a history of the world from its beginnings to our day, including the errors, the incompetence, the thirst of power, the fear, the madness, the cruelty and the commonplace, in a story of the five episodes."

This is the opening to Ulrike Ottinger´s film Freak Orlando and a visual score of over 100 photographs composed of industrial architectures, documents from the colonial or circus context, and a number of colour photographs from the staging of these industrial landscapes. At that time the DAAD Gallery was still located at the former villa of the actress Henny Porten. The staging of the exhibits made playful use of the original division of spaces into library, wardrobe and offices. A dance was staged on the glass roof of the entrance hall, and visitors were able to watch it from the unusual perspective of standing below the performers. In the library, scripts and workbooks were laid out alongside key literature such as Die Ästhetik des Hässlichen (The aesthetics of the ugly) by Rosenkranz, Holländer´s Wunder, Wundergeburt und Wundergestalt (Miracles, Miraculous birth and miraculous form) and circus publications about freaks and side shows. The illuminated lettering Freak City led to the Heilige Bartfrau Wilgeforte (St Wilgeforte the bearded lady), the colourful lamp of her dressin turn pointing to the Weg ins Glück (Path to Happiness) and Das Trojanische Pferd (Trojan horse); the film décor exhibited in the rooms.

WORKS OF THE EXHIBITION

Costumes and costume sketches for the characters of Orlando, Helena, Herbert Zeus, Säulenheiliger, Heilige Bartfrau Wilgeforte, Elefantenmensch, Siamesische Zwillinge Lena und Leni, Fräulein Mausi und Herr Paulchen, Hermaphrodit mit Entourage, vier Bunnies et al.; Script and reference books of the film Freak Orlando; Freak Orlando - Bilderpartitur (1981), Photographs from 1973-1981, 280x600cm; Photographs from the context of the film Freak Orlando (1981); Objects: Das Trojanische Pferd. Der Weg ins Glück and illuminated lettering Freak City.

-> Exhibition flyer

-> Exhibition catalog FREAK ORLANDO. DAAD-Galerie

Presentation of the publication FREAK ORLANDO Kleines Welttheater in fünf Episoden erzählt. Faksimile des Original Künstlerbuches von Ulrike Ottinger zum Film. Verlag: Medusa, 1981

with texts by Hanne Bergius and Ulrike Ottinger (Flyer)