Concept

-2006-

For Lycan Theorized, Jankowski persuaded the film crew of the low-budget, straight-to-DVD horror film Lycan to incorporate elements of his artistic project into the film shoot. In a number of scenes, members of the cast break out of their roles and provide self-reflexive analyses of the horror film genre. (As planned, these sections were later cut from the movie.) The words they speak come from interviews that Jankowski conducted with distinguished theorists of the genre. For example, during a hunt for a werewolf, one actor pauses, turns to the camera, and recites: »Being ›were-‹ means being strange, estranged, weird, perverted, and hyper. This rupture with humanity lies at the heart of horror, but it acknowledges that humans are capable of such things« (Marina Warner, University of Essex). In addition to providing the sound bites, the academics also served as models for the severed limbs used as accessories in the film. This was Jankowski’s offering in return for the crew’s cooperation: paying for the embodiment of the text with body parts.

Video

Video (1 Digital Betacam, 1 DVD [35 mm film transferred to video]), 23:00 min, NTCS, 16:9, color, sound, English with subtitles (German), edition of 5, II