Max Hattler - Abstract Articulations

<body> <img src="images/MaxHattler-flyer2.jpg" width="1000" height="538" border="0" alt="Max Hattler film program" title="Max Hattler film program"><br clear="all"> <br> <h4> directors lounge screening </h4> <h3>max hattler<br> abstract articulations<br> 20 years of audiovisual experiments </h3> <p>Sunday, 27 July 2025<br> 17:00<br> Z-Bar<br> Bergstrasse 2<br> 10115 Berlin-Mitte</p> <p>Max Hattler is an artist, filmmaker and animator from Germany, currently living and teaching in Hong Kong. His animation work is best described as experimental, as films that stand out from traditional animation practice. You won't find popular transformations in his films, such as a walking man turning into a seagull and then plunging into a hole. In fact, the term "animation" is not entirely appropriate for his work, as is the German term "Trickfilm"; both terms derive from mainstream narrative cinema. Hattler often works with abstract shapes and forms that multiply and occupy the screen, turning it into a macrocosm. While some of his films are abstract, most play with symbolic meanings that viewers cannot help but apply. For example, in the film Collision (2005), abstract repeated forms turn into 5-pointed stars. With the addition of blue and red colors, the American flag becomes apparent, but then turns into Arabic Islamic symbols, and back to American again. It's just a play of forms; at the same time, the film can be read as a political statement.</p> <p>In these films, the artist explores various ways of creating images, such as analog, lens-based, and 3D and 2D digital animation. Each film has a unique appearance and depth, or tactile feeling. Rather than being called animations, the films could be called image generation techniques. Heaven and Hell (2010) have the look of science-fiction video games, becoming claustrophobic renderings of a techno tyranny; Catch (2012), on the other hand, resembles live video generated by algorithms that turn music into images; and All Rot (2015) is a photographic animation that evokes the appearance of scratched analog film. However, these images were created using close-up photographs of a decaying minigolf course. Norm (2025) is a digital animation of vector graphics showing test charts used for lens and monitor tests. The patterns of the test charts create interference patterns and 3-dimensional illusions, seem to move independently, or start to have hypnotic qualities.</p> <p>The sound of his films can be described as punchy, graphic, and pronounced, right on point. It's clear that Hattler is able to work in an academic and artistic environment where collaboration is an important part of his work. The artist mentions Norman McLaren, a Scottish-Canadian artist who worked from the 1930s to the 1970s, as one of his inspirations. Harry Smith, an American filmmaker with an anarchist attitude regarding early animations made with paper cut-outs, also comes to mind. Back then, avant-garde experimentalists often worked with very simple soundtracks. However, McLaren already experimented by drawing ink onto the optical soundtrack. With a similar mindset, Max Hattler created all the sounds in Norm (2025) by directly converting the film's images into an optical soundtrack, so that "What you hear is what you see."</p> <p>Other films, such as Shift (2012), are created in direct collaboration with sound artists. Stop motion animation, a traditional animation technique, is being transformed into a vibrant, futuristic space through the fantastic lighting of semi-transparent objects but also through the soundtrack, which gives every movement and transformation a surrealistic punch. This demonstrates how contemporary sound design can elevate image-making to a new level.</p> <p>The two recent films TWENTYTNEWT (2023) and Serial Parallels (2019) were photographed in the dense urban environments of Hong Kong. Both films use stop-motion techniques to animate residential highrises. The former uses time-lapse with long-time exposures to zoom out. The soundtrack, a combination of music and sound effects from field recordings, creates liveliness and a sense of connection with the inhabited spaces behind the lit windows, offering a dystopian interpretation of the facades. In contrast, Serial Parallels uses the repetition of facade elements of residential and industrial highrises, making the windows, balconies, and air conditioners structural elements of abstract, moving surfaces. Here, the soundtrack does not create the illusion of a lively environment but rather the machine sounds of registration. The nature of this registration is open to interpretation. What comes to mind are the implementations and encroachments of the so-called smart city, which has been promoted in Western countries but has been much more successful in Chinese megacities. Both films seem to comment on how the rapid growth of Hong Kong and other Asian cities creates a new kind of modernity that Western viewers may perceive as dystopian or surreal.</p> <p>We are delighted that Max Hattler will be presenting his films in person and will be available for questions and answers. Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr.</p> <p>Artist Link:<br> <a href="https://www.maxhattler.com/" target="_blank" title="homepage Bernd Lützeler">https://www.maxhattler.com</a></p> <p> Directors Lounge - <a href="http://directorslounge.net" target="_blank" title="Directors Lounge Magazin"><img src="images/orangeSignFwd.gif" width="13" height="13" border="0" alt="Fwd Button"> http://directorslounge.net</a><br> Z-Bar - <a href="https://zbarberlin.com/kulturprogramm/" target="_blank" title="Z-Bar"><img src="images/orangeSignFwd.gif" width="13" height="13" border="0" alt="Fwd Button"> https://zbarberlin.com/kulturprogramm/</a><br> </p> </body>