Jelena Behrend, Vaginal Davis Presidential Gavel, 2020. [DESCRIPTION: A gif of four images of a gavel, shown from each three-quarter view in clockwise succession. The gavel has a dark brown wood handle with gold head, onto which four horizontal bands are engraved, as well as the the words "SPEAKING FROM THE DIAPHRAGM" horizontally engraved in serif text beneath the lowest band.]
This weekend NYC is celebrating the work of Michel Auder, one of Jelena’s closest friends. Anthology Film Archives, the Lower East Side stronghold fortress of the avantgarde, is offering a two-part program retrospective of Auder’s films from 1969 to 2014. A compulsive documentarian of himself and those around him (quite a notable group: Warhol, the Zanzibar group, his ex-wives Viva and Cindy Sherman, Alice Neel, and last but not least Jelena herself, and many others), Auder dandifies the everyday, paradoxically blending defensive narcissism and emotional depth.
And on Saturday, Participant Inc will be hosting a launch of a new monograph on Auder: "Stories, myths, ironies, and other songs: conceived, directed, edited and produced by M. Auder."
Read more about The Feature, Auder’s autobiographical opus, featuring Jelena, Zlato, and the Studio.
Don't forget to ask Jelena to show you her collection of Michel's works gathered over the long years of their friendship the next time you come by the Studio.
JELENA BEHREND AND THE STUDIO IN THE EXCERPT FROM MICHEL AUDER'S VIDEO WORK ENDLESS COLUMN
"I am leaving in Brooklyn its the end of the world..." (Michel Auder)
It’s nothing. It will never be here again. That thing that left the world.... That thing never came back again. It came back one time but it wasn’t the same thing. --Alex’s monologue in Michel Auder, Talking Head, 1981, Edited 2009 (1⁄2” reel to reel video to digital video SD, black and white, sound, 02:27 minutes)
