TOBIAS YVES ZINTEL
Hell Hotel, 2007
HD Video, 34 min, colour/sound

In this film Tobias Yves Zintel moves his way of portraying the state of society to a fictional setting, the Hell Hotel. The hotel represents a place of alienation and rootlessness. People are not at home here, but in an outland. The artist creates a vision of hell as a world in which there are no more values and no more certainties; a world in which people wrestle with themselves and their animal instincts, fleeing to an artificial paradise to escape their problems. Hell Hotel asks where exactly our minds, our technology, and our notions of utopia are actually taking us. Human evo-lution here is not depicted as a successful history of progress. Instead, degeneration, undesirable developments, crises, and doubt are at the center of Hell Hotel.

The film deals with a series of settings that are loosely connected to spaces in a hotel: a lobby, a conservatory, a cellar, a bathroom, and a warehouse. In the rooms are actors reading texts, or bands playing music. They circle around different ideas of hell in our society. Individual scenes are interrupted by brief shots showing close-ups of artificially lit flowers, bushes, and trees, pla-cing the film’s pair of fundamental opposites, the natural and the artificial, on a formal level.

The Hell Hotel is depicted as a closed society. Functioning as a guide through this underworld is an unclothed man covered in streams of red liquid. Reciting his disturbing texts, his gaze is directed straight at the viewer. He speaks to us of madness and alienation, of emptiness, of being trapped, of the evolutionary law of eat or be eaten.

The script for Hell Hotel is based mostly on texts and dialogue written by the artist. Added to this are passages from Adolf Loos’ essay Ornament and Crime, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, Happy Mondays, Bruce Springsteen, The Doors, and Velvet Underground.

The texts are recorded in a speech synthesizer, which generates human voices. The actors in the film speak with their own voices, but in the artificial intonation predetermined by the speech computer. They do not act, but recite their statements without feeling. Physical expression and the meaning of the text are separated. Still, Hell Hotel is more narrative than the artist’s earlier films. A few scenes are set up as dialogues, but no conversation occurs. Characters talk at cross-purposes, or they talk to themselves.

The spoken texts reflect the interplay of the natural and the artificial. They deal with the conflict between body and spirit, the ways that people wrestle with their natural predetermination and their alienation from an idealized natural state. Everything looks artificial or like a simulation: our feelings, the nature surrounding us. Everything is superficial and ornamental. By quoting Adolf Loos, Zintel introduces a kind of utopia into his hellish scenario: forbidding ornament and focu-sing everything in life on functionality will allow us to leave behind the barbaric state. In other scenes the actors refer to examples of misguided utopias and developments of human civilization.

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Pieces of music are inserted between the text scenes. Zintel’s choice of bands refers to various kinds of entertainment culture throughout history, such as Andy Warhol’s multimedia happening, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, or the synthetic-drug-fueled rave scene of 1980s’ Britain. Zintel al-ters the lyrics, sometimes replacing only individual letters or words, so that each song opens up a new field of meaning in Hell Hotel: Satellite of Love, for instance, becomes a heretical Swastika of Love, referring to one of the most aggressive youth movements in the world, the Hitler Youth.

24 Hour Party People by Happy Mondays is the film’s title song, defining the Hell Hotel as so-mething comparable to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights—a site for a party that never wants to end. At the same time, it is a place where people remain trapped in their search for pleasure and entertainment, although fun and drugs do not fill their inner void. The socially criti-cal, culturally pessimistic content of these scenes, however, is disguised as the kind of entertain-ment that the film basically criticizes, while we, the viewers, would be only too glad to succumb to its seduction, as well. And with this we have finally stepped over the threshold of the Hell Ho-tel.

Maria Schindelegger Courtesy Barbara Gross Galerie

# vimeo.com/85677248 Uploaded

TOBIAS YVES ZINTEL - WORKS

Created by Tobias Yves Zintel

My video works from 2006 - 2015. Enjoy.

TOBIAS YVES ZINTEL - [email protected], [email protected]

Biographie / Biography

1975 Geboren in Passau
Born in Passau, Bavaria
Lebt und arbeitet in Berlin & Köln
Lives and…


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My video works from 2006 - 2015. Enjoy.

TOBIAS YVES ZINTEL - [email protected], [email protected]

Biographie / Biography

1975 Geboren in Passau
Born in Passau, Bavaria
Lebt und arbeitet in Berlin & Köln
Lives and works in Berlin & Cologne

2002-2007 Studium an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste
München bei Joseph Kosuth.
Studied at the
Academy Of Fine Arts in Munich in the class of Joseph Kosuth.

Einzelausstellungen/Solo Exhibitions

2013 Mental Radio, Season Projects, London, United Kingdom
Symbolic Exchange, Braennen, Berlin, Germany

2012 Mental Radio, Barbara Gross Gallery, Munich, Germany
Mental Radio, Moves #44, Image Movement, Berlin, Germany

2011 God loves fags, Mo David North Gallery, Glen Wild, New
York, USA

2010 Acid and ice cream, video roam curated by Paul Young,
Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Open Space, The Fountainhead, Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany

2008 Confession of Aggression, Doing Identity Bastard,
Kammerspiele München - Neues Haus, Munich, Germany

2007 Entertaining Satan, Barbara Gross Galerie,
Munich, Germany

2006 Fear Fear Fear, Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany

Ausstellungsbeteiligungen/Exhibitions/Performances

2013 Videonale.14 on Tour, Central House of Artists, Moskow Bienale, Moskow; Russia
Stromfestival, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne, Germany
Videonale.14, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany

2012 The Genetic Drive, collaboration with Paul Knight,
Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Glasgow, Scotland.
Age of Consent, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toroto, Canada.
Action Unites - Words Divide, Jump and Run Festival, Hau3, Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany.

2011 Sospechas: Martin Hast & Tobias Yves Zintel,
Espacio Vacio, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Impulse, Groupeshow, Aando Fine Art, Berlin, Germany .
Luxus Loft, Friedenstrasse 16, Berlin, Germany.

2010 Breed and Educate, X-Schulen Festival Hebbel am Ufer,
Berlin
Barbara Gross Gallery, Eröffnung in neuen räumen, mit Alicia Framis, Beate Gütschow, Carlos Garaicoa, Katharina Grosse, Kiki Smith, Jana Sterbak u.a., Munich, Germany

2009 Performance, Interesting productions, The Office, Berlin, Germany
Hauptschule der Freiheit, project of münchner kammerspiele, Munich, Germany

2008 Interesting Productions #3,
The Fortress of Night and Day, ZKMax, Munich, Germany
Interesting productions #2,
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany

2008 Confession of Aggression, Doing Identity Festival,
Kammerspiele München - Neues Haus, Munich, Germany

2006 Interesting Productions #2,
Städtische Kunsthalle Lothringer 13, Munich (cat.),
Germany
Bonnie Prince German, Galerie Low Salt, Glasgow, GB
Drei minuten Nationalsozialismus, Bunnyhill II,
Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany

2005 5 Days Off - Festival, Paradiso, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Favoriten - Junge Kunst in München, Kunstbau Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany.
Club-transmediale, Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
Ghostakademie, Rathahausgalerie, Munich, Germany

2004 Battle Battle Battle, Bunnyhill I, Kammerspiele München, Munich, Germany
reject, international filmfestival rotterdam, netherlands

2003 La vitesse du Voyge, Die Klasse Joseph Kosuth &
Joseph Kosuth, Stiftung Starke, Berlin, Germany

Screenings

2013 „Mental Radio“, Rencontres internationales,
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

2012 "Mental Radio", Moves #44, Image Movement, Berlin,
Germany.
"Earthly Powers", Bukarest Filmfestival, Bukarest, Rumania.
"Earthly Powers", Rencontres Internationales, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany.

2011 "Earthly Powers, 36min" Centre Pompidou, Rencontres
Internationales, Paris, France
And the Demon said" Club Transmediale, Glogauair,
Festival, Berlin.
2010 „Acid and Ice Cream“, Cinema Loop, Arco Madrid 2010, Madrid, Spain
„Hell Hotel“, Galleria Sinne, Helsikni, Finnland.
„Hell Hotel“, Galleria Rajtaide, Tampare, Finnland.
„The Demon said...“ Home Sweet Home, Performance Festival, Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin.
„Traumberuf Realität“, Rencontres Internationales,
Filmoteca Espanola, Madrid, Spain.
„Traumberuf Realität“, Rencontres Internationales,
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.

2009 „Traumberuf Realität“, Rencontres Internationales, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France.
„Hell Hotel“, Rencontres Internationales, Haus der Kulturen der welt,Berlin, Germany.
„Hell Hotel“, Galleria 3H-K, Maaherrankatu 32 Pori, Finnland.
„Hell Hotel“, Makan, Amman, Jordan.
„The Redesign of Satanism“, Source Codes, Image Movement, Berlin, Germany.
„Hell Hotel“, Rencontres Internationales, Reina Sofia
National Museum, Madrid, Spain.

2008 „Hell Hotel“, Rencontres Internationales, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.

2006 „Interesting Productions #1“, Bühne des Lebens,
Rethorik des Gefühls, Städtische Galerie im
Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany.
Interesting Productions #1, Das Leben, eine Gebrauchsanweisiung, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.
Drei Minuten..., bei Petula im Park, Petuelpark, Munich, Germany.

Oper/Opera Theater/Theatre

2013 Arrivals, Film and Performance, Neumarkt Theater, Zürich, Switzerland
Rocco and his Brothers , video installation, Neumarkt Theater, Zürich, Switzerland
Das Gegenteil von Tod, Co-Director with Peter Kastenmüller, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, Germany
Der Ring - Next Generation, Stage Design & Filminstallation, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin,
Germany.

2012 Action Unites - Words Divide, video-based performance,
HAU 3, Berlin, Germany.

2011 Das siebente Siegel, video installation, Theater Basel, Switzerland.
A hole in my Heart, video installation,
Theater Neumarkt, Zurich, Switzerland.
East of Eden, video installation, Theater Basel, Switzerland.

2010 Neverland, video installation, Schauspielhaus
Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Breed and Educate, video based Performance, Hebbel
am Ufer, Berlin, Germany.
Herakles, video installation, Theater Basel,
Basel, Switzerland.
Weekend, video installation, Neumarkt Theater Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.

2009 Hauptschule der Freiheit, performance and film, Kammerspiele München, Munich, Germany.
Schwarz, Rot, Gold, video installation, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.

2008 Confession of Aggression, director, video-based
perfromance, Kammerspiele München, Munich, Germany.

2007 Pool - No Water, video installation, Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
Die Familie Schroffenstein, video installation, Kammerspiele München, Munich Germany.
Falstaff, video installation, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.

2006 Schwarz, video installation, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
Drei Minuten Nationalsozialismus, director, video-based performance, Kammerspiele München,
Munich, Germany.
Die Räuber, video installation, Volkstheater Wien, Vienna, Austria.

2005 Abalon, videoinstallation, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
Plattform, videoinstallation, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.

2004 Battle Battle Battle, director, video-based performance,
Kammerspiele München, Munich, Germany.

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