DokfestForum takes place in cooperation with the Fridericianum and directs its focus on the intersection of film, documentary, and visual art. Over two consecutive evenings, a selection of videos by Klara Hobza and Eli Cortiñas will be presented.

Introduction: Curatorial team, Fridericianum

Screening: On Slaughter, 2023 (English, film length: 16:37 min.) with the presentation of the accompanying artist book (Film and book supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds).

Subsequently: Talk with the artist (in English)

In her recently published short film ON SLAUGHTER, Klara Hobza accompanies Markus, a farmer in the remote forests of Sweden, as he slaughters two sheep. During the slaughter process, Markus provides profound insight into his personal experiences, skills, and knowledge from a life dedicated to living with and off the land. He reflects upon memories of what he learned from stubborn old farmers and people in the Siberian wilderness. Through ON SLAUGHTER, viewers gain a deep understanding of Markus's thoughtful approach to keeping of animals – including the act of slaughter – as being an inherent part of a healthy ecosystem.

After the film screening, Klara Hobza gives a short slide presentation of her subsequent, eponymous book, that aims to expand the traditions of survival books and field guides. Employing visual methods of nature study and anatomy drawing, Hobza infuses the how-to-format with the subjective and emotional experience, which she understands to be equally as important to survival as our objective, practical skills. The artist highlights the inherent severity of the slaughter, while simultaneously allowing the process to be viewed with ardent curiosity and fascination.

The book presentation is followed by a talk with the artist, in which she goes into further depth around her artistic reasons for making ON SLAUGHTER and invites the audience to discuss the complex ethical questions raised by this project. The discussion might challenge the modern detachment from death and meat production and confront the audience with realities of life on the land. Questions related to individual emotional and moral complexities around self-understanding in its connection to the ethics of food consumption might also be raised.

Klara Hobza’s work is characterized by long-term projects that initially seem impossible, or by the staging of intense events and encounters. Her subsequent experiences serve as the raw material for a pictorial articulation using a variety of media and techniques such as drawing, film, lectures and books. She currently lives in Berlin and works wherever one allows her to.

Hobza received her artistic training at Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, Columbia University, New York, and Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School (undisclosed location). Implementing her work both within and outside the boundaries of the art context, Hobza’s art has been internationally exhibited, awarded, and written about since 2005. She participated in exhibitions at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (2023), the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2022), the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2020), the Museum Tinguely in Basel (2018), and the Kunsthaus Zurich (2015).