Luna Kino

ChertLüdde, Berlin, June-September 2022

Luna Kino is an immersive installation created by Pauline Curnier Jardin – in collaboration with the scenographer Rachel Garcia – and inspired by the true story of Luna-Lichtspiegel, a cinema in Berlin kept open by women during and immediately after World War II.

Luna Kino alludes to a multitude of references and historical contexts: women’s roles in Northern European society; iconic women in entertainment history; moon, domestic and cinematographic imaginaries; traditions on menstruation and virginity.

In particular, the installation hints at two very different narrations about women history in Berlin at the end of World War II: the figure of the ‘trümmerfrauen’ (‘rubble women) – women who were tasked to clear the wreckage that littered German cities – and the reconstruction of the mass rapes perpetrated during this period. 

The dense entanglement of sources and allusions of Luna Kino resonates with the series of bas-reliefs Was man aus Liebe tut and with the images and sounds of the only film, projected in the domestic environment of the cinema interior.

While blood drips on the screen, we can hear the sound of an old film projector and distant music. As the film progresses, the blood fills the view and the lyrics become more clear: Bau auf! bau auf! bau auf! bau auf! Freie Deutsche Jugend Bau auf!  This song used to play on loudspeakers throughout Berlin at the end of World War II urging great efforts in the name of Germany’s future.

EXHIBITION PAGE – CHERTLÜDDE WEBSITE

Artist: Pauline Curnier Jardin
Scenographer: Rachel Garcia
Production and Coordination Manager: Vanessa Saraceno
Assistants: Simona Koutná, Martina Silvi

FILM | Loop of 2 min 52 sec
Video, color, stereo
Assistant: Simona Koutná
Editing: Simona Koutná
Sound editing and Sound mix: Antonio Giannantonio
Music: Reinhold Limberg, 1951

Luna Kino, Exhibition view ChertLüdde, Berlin 2022,
Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic A, EPDM, styrofoam, LED lights, concrete, lycra fabric, found objects, P.U foam, video projection of holographic fabric
Courtesy of the artist and ChertLüdde
Photos: Andrea Rossetti

Was man aus Liebe tut, 2022
Serie of glazed ceramics
40 × 50 cm
Courtesy of the artist and ChertLüdde
Photos: Marjorie Burnet Plaza

the only film, 2022
16 mm film, digitalized 2 min. 52 sec.
Courtesy of the artist and ChertLüdde
Photos: Andrea Rossetti