Kurt Kren

Kurt Kren ( born September 20, 1929 in Vienna, † June 23, 1998 ) was an Austrian avant-garde filmmaker.

Biography

Kurt Kren was born in 1929 the son of a Jewish bank employees and a German mother in Vienna. From 1939 until the end of World War II Kren lived in Rotterdam. In 1947 he returned to Vienna, where his father arranged him a job at the National Bank.

The Kurt Kren's film career began in the early 1950s when he made experimental short films in 8 mm format. In 1957 he moved to 16- mm format.

In 1966 Kren on " Destruction in Art " symposium in London in part. In 1968 he first visited the United States, where he showed his films in New York and St. Louis. After participation in the event " Art and Revolution " at the University of Vienna ( 1968) were seized by the police and his films Kren even fired from the bank.

In 1970 Kren at the International Underground Film Festival in London and in 1971 at the Cannes Film Festival in part. For five years, he moved then to Cologne.

The retrospective screenings found in 1976 at London's National Film Theatre, 1978 and 1979 held in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

From 1978 to 1989 Kurt Kren lived in the United States - partly in the car - where he traveled the country, but also made presentations and lessons at universities and film schools. Between 1983 and 1989 he worked as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

1989 Kurt Kren returned to his native city of Vienna. During the 1990s his works were presented worldwide, sometimes in the major museums and cultural institutions. Kren was a co-founder of the Vienna Institute of Direct Art and the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative ( AFC).

Kurt Kren died of pneumonia in 1998 in Vienna.

Filmography

• The Walk ( 1956)
• Rome (Fragment) (1956 )
• Piano Salon 1st floor (1956 )
• Mobile (1957 )
• 1/57: Experiment with synthetic clay (Test) (1957 )
• 3/60: Trees in Autumn ( 1960)
• 2/60: 48 Heads from the Szondi - Test ( 1960)
• 5/62: Fenstergucker, waste, etc. (1962 )
• 9/64: O Christmas Tree (1964 )
• 8/64: Ana - Action Brus (1964 )
• 7/64: Leda and the Swan ( 1964)
• 6/64: Mom and Dad ( Otto Muehl material action ) ( 1964)
• 10/65: Self Mutilation ( 1965)
• 10b/65: Silver - Action Brus (1965 )
• 16/67: September 20th (1967 )
• 15/67: TV ( 1967)
• 18/68: Veneciakaputt (1968 )
• 23/69: Underground Explosion (1969 )
• 26/71: Signs film - Balzac and the Eye of God (1971 )
• 31/75: Asylum (1975 )
• 32/76: AnW B (1976 )
• 33/77: No Danube
• 34/77: Tschibo
• 35/77: Dogumenta
• 36/78: Rischart
• 37/78: Tree Again ( 1978)
• 40/81: Breakfast in the Gray (1981 )
• 39/81: Which Way to CA? (1981)
• 41/82: Getting warm ( 1982)
• No film ( 1983)
• 44/85: Foot' -age Shoot' -out (1985 )
• Trailer ( 1988)
• A celebration (1991 )
• Tausendjahrekino (1995 )
• 50/96Snapspots ( for Bruce ) ( 1996)