BEYOND THE VISIBLE: HILMA AF KLINT
Directed by Halina Dyrschka
In cinemas and on digital on 9 October
SYNOPSIS
Hilma af Klint was an abstract artist before the term existed, a visionary,
trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches
of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge,
colorful, sensual, strange works without precedent in painting. The subject of a
recent smash retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was for years
an all-but-forgotten figure in art historical discourse, before her long-delayed
rediscovery. Director Halina Dryschka’s dazzling, course correcting
documentary describes not only the life and craft of af Klint, but also the
process of her mischaracterization and erasure by both a patriarchal
narrative of artistic progress and capitalistic determination of artistic value.
HALINA DYRSCHKA – DIRECTOR
Halina Dyrschka was born in Berlin, Germany and is active as a director and
producer. After studying acting, classical singing and film production she founded
the company AMBROSIA FILM in Berlin. Her first film as a director the short film
“9andahalf’s Goodbye” was shown at over 40 film festivals worldwide and has won
several awards. BEYOND THE VISIBLE – HILMA AF KLINT marks her directorial feature
documentary debut and is the first and only film on the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Seldom are there really surprising discoveries. On a quite normal Sunday
morning I read the following title in the newspaper: “Art history has to be
rewritten.” What a great idea in the year 2013! This article was telling about an
abstract artist from the beginning of the 19th century who seemed to be
completely unknown.
A few months later in Berlin I visited the exhibition “Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of
Abstraction” – and was speechless: exuberant colour compositions and over-
dimensional paintings. I was standing in the middle of a hall surrounded by
Hilma af Klint’s “Ten Largest”: Altogether 25 meters of paintings – 3,60 meters
high. And beyond these paintings – a whole world.
But why have they been kept from me for so long? I almost felt personally
insulted when I read that this was a new discovery and the paintings have
been hidden for decades. Could that be true? Paintings in this size are hard
to hide. And who would be interested in marginalizing this artist’s
accomplishments? And why?
Starting the research immediately afterwards I discovered a very different
picture of Hilma af Klint: not at all alone or lonely and not hiding her paintings
from the world. Here was a woman who consequently followed her own path
in life that led to a unique oeuvre. A strong character and despite all
restrictions Hilma af Klint explored the possibilities that go beyond the visible.
She knew that she was doing something important not only for herself but for
many people.
It is more than time to tell the untold heroine stories. And there are many of
them. This is one.
This is a film about a truly successful life. A woman who was not dependent of
the opinion of others and kept on going her very unique way of living and
working. Dedicated to things that matter in everybody’s life: How do we want
to live? How do we achieve a truly content and fulfilled life? And is that what
we see real or do we just think it is real?
Hilma af Klint’s oeuvre goes even beyond art because she was looking for the
whole picture of life. And with that she comes close to the one question:
What are we doing here?
