6 Garage. in conversation with Stefanie Schroeder from the .mpeg project

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Fig.: .mpeg building in new “glittergrey”-paint

In October 2021 we handed to you the keys to the former art space Kunstraum Praline. Since then the project is called .mpeg – moving pictures experimental garage – and you are part of the media art collective Filmische Initiative Leipzig – FILZ. You repainted the wooden façade in “glittergrey” and installed a shaft in the interior in front of the shop window. The shop window of the small building is now converted into a projection surface for films and video works that can be viewed from the street. What formats are shown and is there a focus in terms of content?

We wanted to create a monitor, a video showcase in public space, with speakers facing outwards, so that passers-by can see the works. We show films, short films and video works. These formats mainly take place outside the building and you don’t go inside, unlike the projects of the former Kunstraum Praline. In connection with the projections, the building becomes a video sculpture. The works connect with the architecture and the surroundings.
However, performances, concerts and artist talks also took place partly in the interior, “behind the screen”, so to speak. The live performance “Out of the Cage” by Anna Korsun and Sergey Khismatov, an improvisation with readymade sound objects, was performed by the sound artists in the interior and transmitted live to the outside via the screen. The artist Valentina Petrova invited to “borschtsch” and an artist talk behind the scenes. In contrast to public Q&As at film events, there is something very personal and familiar about it. A nice format, which we would like to continue.
In 2022, due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we declared “Artists in Exile” as a main focus of the program and showed works by filmmakers from Ukraine, but also from Syria: Khaled Abdulwahed with the work “Tuj طج”, as well as the work “China Not China” by Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie (2018) about Hong Kong. This year the focus is on the topic of “energy”, but that is very broad. By the way, this is also connected with the wish to install solar panels on the roof of the building to be able to realize our film programs with self-generated solar power.


Fig.: artist talk with Valentina Petrova

Are there also open calls? Can proposals be submitted?

We discussed these possibilities in our small group, but decided against it for the moment. We lack the capacity to adequately screen and fairly select the submissions. We already suspect that we would receive many submissions. So far, the proposals come from our group, and we decide on the program together in the regular meetings. That is already an elaborate collective process itself, since we are all working on our own films and artistic works.

Do invited artists also develop works especially for the space, the context, the environment?

Site-specific productions would be great, of course, but on the other hand we don’t want to invite artists to do this without appropriate financing and remuneration possibilities. It is important to us as a collective that the participating artists receive appropriate fees for their work. However, there are some examples where the artists have adapted their work to the framework. For example, in the work “When old women sing, their voices echo through the universe” by Dmytro Starusiev (2015), the recording of a running magnetic tape completely fills the screen. You can hear conversations and songs of Ukrainian women in the steppe of Eastern Ukraine. The building becomes a tape recorder. In selecting the works, we are very interested in the play with the format of film and video in public space and in the interplay with the environment.
Certain works we wouldn’t show, because they are always received only in excerpts and in some cases it would be unfavorable for the respective work. Ideal are works that can be grasped in passing.


Fig.: „When old women sing, their voices echo through the universe“ by Dmytro Starusiev (2015)

So what are the reactions of the public and who looks at the works? Is there feedback, conversations, discussions? How can the works be received on the noisy street with the streetcar regularly squeaking by?

There is definitely an interested public. We are often asked: What is this? What are you doing here? Many interested passers-by want to get inside the building, which is usually not planned. In the neighborhood there are also many people with an interest in art and culture, and they tell us that they always look at our current program on their way to “Kaufland”, the supermarket, for example. But we’re not on site all the time, and many things we just aren’t able to observe. There are a lot of comments on Instagram.
The special setting with the screen in the building at the roadside puts the works in a very exciting new context. Topics are suddenly placed in a new environment, for example the sequence of a child playing ball in Syria, bomb impacts can be heard in the background. By screening the work “Tuj طج” by the Syrian filmmaker Khaled Abdulwahed – who lives in Leipzig now – an event that seems far away is brought right into this part of town and into the perception of the people passing by.
Unfortunately, there have already been complaints about disturbance of the peace, the window has been smashed and another attempted break-in has taken place, most likely because of the technology in the building. Yes, and of course the graffiti across the front of the building, but you already know that from Kunstraum Praline.


Fig.: „BUXUS 1“, Dagmar Weiss (2019), Festival LindeNOW 2021

I remember that in times of Kunstraum Praline the graffiti lettering was remarkably well coordinated in color with the current artistic works. What do you think, what meaning, effect or even impact does your project have on the district? And how do you interpret the graffiti? Are you classified as an intellectually detached art scene, perceived as a factor in the advancing gentrification of the district, and are crossed because of it?

I don’t think so. I’d rather think the building looks like a garage and has something harmless. There is noone coming out of the house right away who’s catching you. The gentrification debate is often put forward. Gentrification happens through absent urban planning, not through artists using existing vacancy.


Thank you, I am curious. I wish you good luck with the following programs and the solar panels!


Fig.: Live Performance “Out of the cage” by Anna Korsun & Sergey Khismatov, 2022

All pictures: © .mpeg

A series of talks by Ex_Praline and Verlag Trottoir Noir, 2023
Yvonne Anders in conversation with Stefanie Schroeder,
Editors: Yvonne Anders and Marcel Raabe