Alexandra Hopf

"Being Renée Sintenis"

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/864406752

is a film project about the Berlin sculptor Renée Sintenis (1888-1965). As the androgynous role model of the "New Woman", she was at the centre of the Berlin art scene and was considered the most photographed artist of the 1920s.

As an artist, she dealt with animals and their representation throughout her life. Her small-format animal bronzes idealised naturalness as a field free of social attributions and thus hit the spirit of her time. Privately, she was considered introverted and deliberately avoided interpretation of her work. 

In an interview Sintenis empowers herself with her own narrative and deconstructs the image of the introverted role model that has been portrayed in several biographies.

Embedded within the interview are moments resembling dream-like vignettes, shaped by the interplay of music and spoken words. This creates a rebus-like portrayal of the artist, enveloped in an enigmatic aura throughout her life. The utilization of props, costumes, and settings weaves a tapestry of art historical allusions from the 20th century.

"Being Renée Sintenis" portrays the various aspects of self-presentation that have played and continue to play an important role in the self-perception of artists, not only in marketing their art but also in incorporating it in their identity. The film shifts between different genres, such as the trailer, Q&A sessions, and documentation of artworks within museums. 

The film was shot both in the studio and in several specific locations, such as the garden of the Georg Kolbe Museum, the Berlin Tiergarten, the Sculpture Depot, and the concourse of the Neue Nationalgalerie.

Renée Sintenis: Lisa-Katrina Mayer 

Sound/Composition: Katrin Vellrath

Camera: Volker Gläser, Alexandra Hopf

Sound engineer: Thomas Meier