Berlin/Ingolstadt, June 29, 2016 – Audi is extending its sponsorship of the Bayreuth Festival with an innovative film project. Entitled “Black Mountain,” it is part of the company’s “Zeitgeist” series launched by the company in 2015 to support dialog with creative minds from various disciplines. Audi realized the art film with the artist collective “Like A Wild Beast’s Fur,” with composer Moritz von Oswald and cultural adviser Jan Engel. “Black Mountain” is inspired by Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal,” which is being newly staged this year at the Bayreuth Festival, and adds new perspectives on this stage production. The film can be viewed from July 6–24 as part of the “Black Mountain X Fragments” exhibition at Galerie Patrick Ebensperger in Berlin.
Appearing in the film, among others, are Icelandic actor Tómas Lemarquis, Jacques Palminger, a member of the Hamburg music trio “Studio-Braun,” and electroclash singer Peaches, as well as actor Volker Spengler, known from his Fassbinder films, and Sven Marquardt, a doorman at the Berghain techno club. The modern staging, with music based on Wagner’s leitmotifs as composed by Moritz von Oswald, translate the old “Parsifal” for today.
With its sponsorship of the Bayreuth Festival, Audi is fostering culture of the highest order, and with “Black Mountain,” is closing the gap between the “Wagner for Kids” project for young talent and grand opera. “We highly value the special commitment of our main sponsor Audi and hope they are successful in also appealing to the interests of a new target group for the works of Wagner by supporting this type of artistic innovation,” said Katharina Wagner, Artistic Director of the Bayreuth Festival.
“With ‘Black Mountain’ we have added a progressive element to our sponsorship of the Bayreuth Festival. We are giving creative artists freedom to completely reconstruct Richard Wagner’s Parsifal. The result is a high-caliber work of art that introduces various generations to Wagner’s work in a modern way,” said Wayne Griffiths, Head of Sales Germany at AUDI AG. “In addition, Audi will be appearing for three weeks in Berlin’s gallery scene with the supporting exhibition ‘Black Mountain X Fragments’.”
The film can be accessed online starting Sunday, July 3, from 5 p.m., at www.audi.de/blackmountain. It will in addition be shown from July 6–24 an Berlin’s Galerie Patrick Ebensperger (Plantagenstraße 30, 13347 Berlin), in a light installation by Hauke Odendahl. Film showings begin at the top of the hour. Galerie Patrick Ebensperger is open from 2–8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, and by appointment. Florian Kolmer’s photographs of the making of the film round out the exhibition.
Audi supports short films in a variety of ways. For example, the brand with the four rings began presenting the Audi Short Film Award at the Berlinale in 2014. Since 2006 the company has also supported the short film festival 20 min|max in Ingolstadt. Audi is also committed to the film genre internationally. Examples here include sponsoring the American Film Institute in the United States and the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain.
