Merz / Yannick Mosimann (UK/CH)

Dampfzentrale is showing the film «Our Ears Are in Excellent Condition» as a big screen world premiere. The film was produced by the Bern-based filmmaker Yannick Mosimann in 2017.

In the history of concert films, there have only been a handful that were not intended to simply bring the feeling of a band’s live performance into your living room. Well-known examples of this are «Live at Pompeii» by Pink Floyd, «Stop Making Sense» by Talking Heads or «Home of the Brave» by Laurie Anderson. In all modesty, «Our Ears» is also in this category. At the time, Yannick announced that he would be filming two living-room live concerts by the top-class trio Merz, Shahzad Ismaily and Julian Sartorius; the audiences at these concerts in Bern had to agree to the fact that they might be recognisable in the film’s final edit. But what Yannick deliberately failed to mention was that this film project was not so much about capturing the band’s live performance, but rather about filming the audience – intimately, directly and close up.

The magnificently edited, atmospheric film lay in a drawer for three years. So, what better time than now to project it onto a big screen. We have all been denied the chance to be part of a concert audience for roughly three months. And even now after the lockdown, who wants to squeeze shoulder to shoulder into a small space to listen to a live band? Seen from this angle, «Our Ears» portrays a normal situation in what is a very unusual period in our lives when we are unable to experience a normal situation. But the film goes a step further and focuses on the opposite of the common experience, showing the isolation and introversion of an individual in an audience situation. The seclusion of the film-in-your-own-head unaware of your immediate surroundings.

This is also the last event with/by Conrad Lambert alias Merz in his role as an Associated Artist of Dampfzentrale Bern.