Ulrike Ottinger

Film costumes created in collaboration with Gisela Storch-Pestalozza form the core of the living bequest Ottinger made to the Kinemathek in 1997, enhanced in 2014‒15. Produced from materials such as patent leather, plastic and lining fabric, these costumes range from the surreal and theatrical to stylized artificiality. They represent the characters’ diversity and celebrate their otherness. In ‘Freak Orlando’ (FRG,1981), the artist Galli can be seen in a hooped skirt and feathered hat, and Delphine Seyrig wears a blood-red patent leather dress during the so-called “banquet” in honour of Walter Benjamin and Else Lasker-Schüler. For the baroque opera staged in ‘Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse’ (FRG, 1984), the soldiers’ armour is made of washboards and stovepipes. The large-scale proscenium framing the opera contains motifs by Gustave Moreau. The fur, bead and bone studded costume worn by the female shaman in ‘Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia’ (FRG, 1989) confirm Ottinger’s fascination with non-European cultures. Ottinger’s cultural and historical studies are mirrored in opulent workbooks that she has gradually given to the Kinemathek since 2021. Parallel to film, Ottinger works as a photographer. More than 300 slide boxes, starting with her films with Tabea Blumenschein from the 1970s, are currently being digitized. In addition to sound and editing reports, the script collection contains documents related to unrealized projects such as the vampire film ‘Die Blutgräfin’ (2010). (Text: Kristina Jaspers)