Im Gehäus

In His Room

Dennis and I live together. One year ago I started to explore his 30.8 square meters with my camera. This portrait of a man in his workroom emerged. Papers cover the floor, mixed up – a lot of contradictory details.

In between noted thoughts, mathematical formulas, graphic sketches, and receipts there are novels, scientific books, issues of "The New York Review of Books", tools, lenses, pieces of wood, cardboards, plastic bags, and dust. In the mysterious chaos a self-willed world of a mathematician, thinker, art historian, and handyman becomes visible. He believes that his two kinds of work – handcraft and intellectual – support each other. Dennis spent half a year working on a small geometric surprise inside Dürer’s engraving "Jerome in his study", and confessed: "Jerome’s room is my room." How does he see that?

The camera tracks down the details in the room. I don't really trust his working methods little gets done – but they draw me in, affecting my own method in this film. At the same time, when I start filming, Dennis starts cleaning up the room.

Source: 67. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)