One of the most original figures in German cinema returns to REDCAT with Die koreanische Hochzeitstruhe, a provocative mélange of ethnography, stunning tableaux and baroque vignettes. As if in a modernist fairytale, Ottinger explores the “well-stocked miracle” of Korean wedding chests and finds herself in an enchanted maze of a modern Asian metropolis flush with mythological heroes, traditional rites, ancestral symbolism, dreams of eternal love, and a whole lot of Western kitsch. “Even though (or especially because) this carefully packed, filled, and tied-up wooden chest was assembled according to the rules of an honored tradition, it offers a remarkable insight into and overview of modern Korean society,” says Ottinger. “I was inspired to look more closely at the old and new rituals to determine what is old in the new and new in the old… Bon voyage into the present!”

In person: Ulrike Ottinger

Program curated by Bérénice Reynaud and Steve Anker