Ulrike Ottinger: Journee d'Un G.I.: Cat. Cfa Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin

Journee d'un G.I. features paintings and serigraphs from the 1960s. Ulrike Ottinger’s often multi-part works, or works divided into several pictorial fields, reveal a passion for storytelling that ultimately finds its fulfillment in the medium of film. She became somewhat of a cult star in cineaste circles with her Berlin trilogy and its outstanding second film Freak Orlando (1981). In 2019, in the diary Paris Calligrammes , she went on to show memories of her formative decade in Paris in a cinematic collection, which brings us right to the heart of the pictorial narratives of Journee d'un G.I. It’s the mid-1960s, Ulrike Ottinger is a painter, when Paris is shaken by images of war and revolution. At home in Nouvelle Figuration, a Parisian form of Pop Art, it is everyday scenes, comics, photography and advertising that determine the narrative style of Ottinger’s images. Day-to-day rituals mingle with references to historical figures and literary heroes. While the daily battles rage, her heroes are taking a break; Che Guevara as Le penseur is lolling on a sofa while sipping a drink; Allen Ginsberg has No more to say and nothing to weep for.