PETRO-MELANCHOLY – THE OIL AGE IN THE MIRROR OF ART
Oil has inspired artists around the world to produce spectacular and controversial works of art. On a journey through cultural and contemporary history, the documentary looks at the petroleum age as reflected in art.
No other substance has defined the 20th and early 21st centuries as profoundly as petroleum. The petroleum age is now drawing to an end and we are finally beginning to comprehend just how dependent modern society has become on this substance. Oil has become a black reflection of the last 150 years in the history of mankind. On a journey through our cultural and contemporary past, back to the age of oil, this documentary looks at how profoundly our lives are permeated by the cycles of oil. In encounters with artists such as Ana Alenso (Venezuela), Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan), Michael Hirschbichler (Austria), Albert Scopin (Germany), Monika Grzymala (Germany) and Romuald Hazoumè (Benin), and works of art by Gerhard Richter (Germany), Sebastião Salgado (Brazil), William Eggleston and Steve McCurry (USA), the film shows how oil is inspiring artists around the world to create striking, provocative and political works of art. Their special gaze is a stark reminder of our ambivalent relationship to this substance. This is unique view of petromodernity and all its implications.