Interview with Danny Germansen
Danny Germansen (Born 1976) is a filmmaker and video-artist who was raised in a dysfunctional family in a little town on the west coast of Jutland in Denmark called Ribe.
Playing music most of his teenager years, Danny first started to work with video and film at the age of 21. His main body of work are inspired by a life with disability, depression and mental breakdown.
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? and your first experience in art making?
Iʼm autodidact filmmaker and video artist, among other. My main body of work are inspired by a life with disability, depression and mental breakdown. My work has been shown around the world at various venues, galleries and festivals. Beside the breakdown art I do. I also do political and philosophical work. The latest short film I have done, that will be released in 2018 is a futuristic tale about freedom in modern society.
I started out in the arts playing music in my teenage years and at 21 I started to work with short film and video. In year 2000 my first amateur film was shown on danish state tv DR2.
It is a dream for me since my childhood to make film. Because of my disability as a kid I could not run around and play and do sports like the other kids , so I spent a lot of time watching films and a whole world opened up for me .
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
I call some of my work TALES OF THE DOWN BELOW OF SOCIETY. Its stories about the sick, lonely and alienated people in our modern society. I myself have lived thru some hard times in my life and are still alive to tell the stories. So I see as my mission to make films about these topics. To create a better understanding of how disabled and mentally ill people are living and feeling. And maybe for the audience to understand where and how to help people in such situations.
I have used my work with film as . therapy to work myself out of my own problems and this has created a life for me that is constructive and full of meaning. And that gives me good experiences and success.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspiration comes from my own life , it can be actual situations I have lived thru and have experienced. Or it can be thoughts or ideas I have about the world. My latest short film Anti-Social Club is inspired by talks I had with my friend Suzana Lungu.
Stylish Iʼm inspired by the minimalism of Carl TH. Dryer, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jim Jarmusch, Lars von Trier and the underground films of Andy Warhol . But Iʼm also inspired by early Martin Scorsese, Jean Luc Godard, David Lynch and as a script writer Iʼm inspired by Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino.
What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?
I hope to make people feel the pain and loneliness of the mentally ill and disabled. To create a better understanding of how the sick people are living and feeling.
Or just make people think.
When do you know that an artwork is finished ?
I never start filming a video or film without knowing precise what its about and how it should be made. The post-production is just constructive work after that . And when the project feel finished its time to release it .
What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?
In 2009 I got my videos and films uploaded to the web and what happened after that has been a dream I could not even dream about. I meet people that invited me to collaboration projects, curators who showed and screened my work and I also meet people who has and still is contributing to my videos/ films. And Iʼm still living this dream.
How long does it take to produce one work?
It depends on how big the project is. From idea to final, it normally takes me from a half to a whole year .. the short film Anti-Social Club that will be released in 2018 has taken around two years from when I had the first idea about the film.
What exciting projects are you working on right now? Can you share some of the future plans for your artworks?
We are in the last post-production stages of our new short film Anti-Social Club. A futuristic film about human freedom contra modern society. It will be sold on limited dvd and out digital for rent on our webpage BrujoArt.com and Vimeo.
The next film Iʼm writing on now will be called MANIFESTATION. Its a tale about a violent mentally ill.
And I will be returning to where I started out with making breakdown films within the next years. Because I have a bunch of complete scripts I wrote over ten years .go, that I didʼt make at that time, because my health was not good enough to produce these big projects. Iʼm feeling better now and hopefully I will have the opportunity the next years to embark on that journey.
Do you have any upcoming events or exhibitions we should know about?
MAD Gallery in Milano are showing 11 of our videos and films thru out 2018. MAD Gallery Milano will be the place to go and watch our films in the future.
Where do you see your art going in five years?
I will still be making various short films projects inspired from my own life. But I am also open for new inspiration for what ever comes into my life, of small or bigger projects of art, as video art, poster art and T-shirt printing that I also produce.
Email: danny@brujoart.com
Web: BrujoArt.com
IMDB: imdb.me/dannygermansen
FB: facebook.com/BrujoArtCompany
Vimeo: Vimeo.com/dannygermansen
