Sketches from the Giant Mountains

In the summer of 1810, Caspar David Friedrich set off on a hike through the Giant Mountains with his friend Georg Friedrich Kersting. On the way, they made sketches, some of which (from July 8, 10, 11-14 and 17, 1810) are still preserved and serve as a reminder for the artist's work on his paintings Morning on the Giants Mountains and Ruins of Eldena in the Giant Mountains.

It is the experience of the mountains - walked step by step on the ridges, on the slopes and in the valleys - that Friedrich incorporates into these works. In the early hours of the morning, at midday and at dusk, his gaze wanders up to the sky, down into the depths of the gorges and over the mountain tops. The painter's longing seems to lure him beyond the horizon.

The film project "Sketches from the Giant Mountains" once again entrusts the unique landscape of this mountain region to art. What expression do dance and music seek in the interplay between height and depth, light and darkness, rock and water - the vastness of the sky and the careful step over scree and mud?

The dancer Małgosia Suś and the musician and composer Matthias Schriefl, like Caspar David Friedrich and his friend Georg Friedrich Kersting, expose themselves to the mountain landscape and set out in search of their "sweet spot", their shining point on the path.

Conversations about Friedrich's work provide inspiration for their improvisations. The artist couple encounter weather phenomena and grid structures on their hike: fog and clouds crowd into the picture, fallen trees and overgrown bushes block the way. As in Friedrich's paintings, they block the view into the depths of the picture. On the other hand, views through windows and gates often lead from a darkened foreground of the here and now into a brighter background. They awaken a longing for the distance, the future or even a divine infinity. Images of caves and gorges, on the other hand, lead from a bright foreground into darker confines and testify less to a longing for freedom or the hope of redemption, but rather to shadowy ideas of death.

Questions like these come up in the evening conversations in the huts, when the impressions of the stunning landscapes are still fresh and the thoughts are soaked in adrenaline - when they set off in the morning mist, however, they fade into the background and the natural force of the mountains has the artist couple back ... every step challenges the encounter with wonder anew, elicits the dance from Małgosia and makes Matthias' trumpet, alphorn and accordion sing.

Caspar David Friedrich is right, the shining spot should not be repeated anywhere else in the picture, but our hike seems like an endless succession of pictures, scenes and compositions. And each one seems to produce its very own "sweet spot" ...

The art of film is to create its own narrative from this wealth of luminous points, a journey in itself. We are delighted to be able to take you on this journey with "Sketches from the Giant Mountains".

Natalie Wasserman, Dorota Makrutzki and Oliver Spatz

The traveling residency was made possible by the Cultural Department for Pomerania and East Brandenburg and the Cultural Department for Silesia in cooperation with the Berlin-Wrocław Cultural Train, accompanied by the Pomeranian State Museum and funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

We also thank: Costume collective Berlin e.V., Karkonoski Park Narodowy, Krkonošsky Národní Park, FLOW LAND, Volkmar Umlauf, Robert Rient, Ewa Stróżczyńska-Wille, Dr. Birte Frenssen, Irma Weiche, Marcin Wawrzyńczak, Daniel Źródlewski.