● One+One+One Version NP – Excerpt [4:07]

A visit to occultist Aleister Crowley’s house Thelema Abbey in Sicily. When the Mussulini regime in 1923 closed down this scandalous society the obscene wallpaintings in the Room of Nightmares where covered with whitewash. In 1955 the psychologist Alfred C. Kensey supported filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s project to display the paintings again. In 1969 Mick Jagger made the soundtrack for Anger’s ‘Invocation of My Demon Brother’ and Jean-Luc Godard brilliantly captured The Rolling Stones in the process of recording ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. Goddard’s film juxtapose The Black Panther Movement and Pop Art so he called it ‘One plus One’. This is Joachim Koester’s tribute to occultism, avantgarde film and Jean Luc Goddard. The drumming girl is Lena Jensen.

Dir. Joachim Koester 2006, all film work by Niels Plenge, 16 mm film, 13 min

● Tarantism – Sound Version [3:12]

Another filmwork I did on 16mm for Joachim Koester. In the old days in rural Italy it was belived that the only way to get rid of the poison when bitten by the tarantula spider was to perform some kind of spastic dance. Later this was formalized in the musical style of the tarantella. Joachim staged this abstract version in order to focus on the bodily movements disconnected from any social, psychological or cultural aspects. This extract is from my special version with the foley sound and music I produced for the film. Later we decided that the actual installation had more impact when the 16mm film was mute.

Dir. Joachim Koester 2007, all film work by Niels Plenge, 16 mm film, 8 min