Maria Petschnig is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and video artist. To quote New York magazine —""her strange videos suggest she’s the art world’s Franz Kafka”—. By dealing with fantasy, voyeurism, privacy and memory, Maria Petschnig captivates and manipulates the viewer with seemingly familiar images. Petschnig’s work has been screened and exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Major screenings include: Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; Anthology Film Archives, New York; MoMA PS1; Mumok, Vienna, Austria; Image Movement, Berlin; Random Institute, Zurich, Switzerland; Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany; Performa 11, NYC; Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; Callicoon Fine Arts, New York; IMO projects, Copenhagen, Denmark. She is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts NYC grant, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant, New York; as well as a National Grant (video & media art) by the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Arts and Culture, amongst others. In 2015, Black Dog Publishing, London printed a monograph on Petschnig’s videos titled NINETEEN VIDEOS (2002 – 2015). “Uncomfortably Comfortable” (2021) is her first documentary feature.
www.maria.petschnig.cc- Uncomfortably Comfortable TRAILER
Uncomfortably Comfortable
USA, 2021, 72 min
A film by Maria PetschnigRoutines of survival: showering at the gym, working in a warehouse, living in a jeep. After seventeen years in prison, Marc can no longer imagine life in a fixed residential structure. No relationship, no apartment. For over a year the filmmaker Maria Petschnig documents the 58-year old in Brooklyn, and allows him to precisely regulate closeness and distance. An agreement between artist and protagonist – one who is white and privileged, and the other who is black and scared of being exploited. A questionnaire, "Uncomfortably Comfortable" as a project of mutual interest. “I want to see what can develop with your artistic abilities and my circumstances as much, if not more than you!”.