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There are two German words for reality. They couldn’t be more different. The word Realität (noun) or real (adjective) goes back to the Latin word res which means thing. So the concept of reality is seeing the world around us as an arrangement of things, including plants, animals and humans. The German word Wirklichkeit is related to the English word work. The concept of Wirklichkeit sees the world a structure of entities working together. This includes non-material entities.

The film shows the artist Ute Spingler in two worlds: The opening scene is about her exhibition, the real world if you will. Then she pulls the plug and finds herself in the dreamlike world of her makeshift studio where she conceives ideas for a new painting. In the final scene she bridges the gap by writing the words: “and silence dances tango with the fire of ecstasy” into her picture. Two opposites re-connected. Dreaming, painting and selling pictures go well together. Or in Ute’s words: “The creation of a picture is only complete when the picture is received by other people, when art lovers buy it.”

The film is based on a poem Ute wrote and she reads it in the film:

Eros kisses vulnerability
Sensuality embraces fear

I open up to life and
I receive the gifts of my trust
in what I perceive within
and which I send out with every beat of my pulsating heart

I stride through the gate of love
let myself fall and surrender
caress the cradle of my life
Every day I celebrate the moment
which my hearts transforms to eternity

Eros kisses vulnerability
Sensuality embraces fear
And silence dances Tango with the fire of ecstasy.

“It’s the body that I am interested in, the body which is vulnerable.” At first sight, people often see blood and death in Corry’s works. But people who take time to look closer see more. One thing that is peculiar is that the sculptures don’t have heads whereas the images are just heads. Another aspect Corry mentions is the eyes. “When we look at each other we exchange something that is beyond our personality, or just beyond.” A face without eyes is a mask. Our egos create masks, that’s why some of the faces on her pictures don’t have eyes.

I filmed the making of one of Corry’s pictures, a large face, turquoise after a long period of painting red. The eyes of the turquoise face seem to be turned inward.