Since 2024, the Filmische Initiative has been developing the collective video art project Ost:Deutsch:Land (working title). The central motif of this polyphonic cinematic exploration is the wasteland: a piece of land that was once used for construction, housing, or work and now stands vacant. The wasteland is both a topographical reality and a projection surface, and thus a contested site: actors from politics, the real estate industry, the art scene, and subculture alike vie for the open space—who owns it, and who is allowed to occupy it?
Starting from specific vacant lots such as Leipzig’s Jahrtausendfeld, the «Intel wasteland» near Magdeburg, or the construction gap left by the demolition of writer Wolfgang Hilbig’s house in Meuselwitz, the film combines documentary and fictional episodes into an exploration of contemporary East Germany. The narrative style is essayistic, multi-perspective, and subjective. Our group - itself heterogeneous, drawn from city and countryside, East and West - is reflected in the film footage.
Our focus is on current events, but also on the past, the GDR era, and the future. There is no uniform picture of the situation, nor do we wish to create one. Through the montage of sound, text, and image, we aim to establish connections of meaning and significance that reflect the fragmented nature of the present.
The resulting video work is intended for a broad audience that is open to hybrid narrative forms - in cinemas, at festivals, and in media education settings.
