FILM + DISCUSSION
Harald Naegeli - The Zurich Sprayer

Film + Discussion with Filmmaker Nathalie David

Wed, 11/20/2024
7:00 PM Goethe-Institut LA Project Space

Join us on Wednesday, November 20th, @ 7:00 PM at the Goethe-Institut for a special screening of the Film HARALD NAEGELI - The Zurich Sprayer, followed by a discussion with Filmmaker and Villa Aurora Fellow Nathalie David and west coast Graffiti Art pioneer Hector "HEX" Rios. 

This screening is part of the long-standing cooperation with the Villa Aurora, where Villa Aurora Fellows showcase their projects (past, present, and future) at the Goethe-Institut.  

Admission is free with RSVP below. Capacity is limited. 
RSVP holders will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Light refreshments provided

EVENT SCHEDULE
6:30pm Doors open.
7:00pm Welcoming + Screening of HARALD NAEGELI - The Zurich Sprayer
8:45pm Discussion with Nathalie David + Hector "HEX" Rios.
9:30pm End of Event

Secure, free Parking is available at Metro/Retail parking structure with rear entrance to the Goethe-Institut located at
674 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90057

Harald Naegeli - The Zurich Sprayer
Switzerland/Germany (20201, 97 min., Swiss German/German with English Subtitles
Writer-Director: Nathalie David, Idea: Peter Spoerri, Music: Andrina Bollinger, Cinematography: Adrian Stähli, Nathalie David, Editing: Nathalie David, Producers: Peter Spoerri, Nathalie David, Production Company: PS Film GmbH (Zürich)

Harald Naegeli, born 1939 in Zurich, is the Zurich Sprayer. Convicted of causing criminal damage with his graffiti, he ran away to Germany where he received support from Joseph Beuys. In 1982, Switzerland issued an international arrest warrant against him and he subsequently spent 6 months in prison for his art. In 1984, he moved to Germany where he lived in exile for almost 20 years. He returned to Zurich in 2020 suffering from terminal cancer. During the Covid 19 lockdown, he sprayed more than 50 Dance of Death figures in the city. These Grim Reapers, he says, are his final answer, or the final utopia in his life for society. While the Canton of Zurich presses charges against him, the City of Zurich presents him with its annual City Art Award of 50 000 Swiss francs which he is donating to environmental and animal rights charities. Today Harald Naegeli is 84 years old. This film is an hommage to a great utopian.
 

© Valery Faidherbe

Nathalie David, born in France, studied fine arts at the Villa Arson in Nice and the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, with subsequent additional studies at Pontus Hultén's Institut des Hautes Études in Paris and a fellowship at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Potsdam-Babelsberg. She sees the documentary perspective as a genre and a specific art process. Her work includes films, radio plays, photographs, and drawings. She lives and works in Hamburg and Berlin.

Nathalie David's project is a film about the poet, collector, architect, and patron of the arts Edward James, who lived in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1962 (from 1946 mostly as a visitor). There he was friends with, among others, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Ruth Ford, and Jack Larson, but he also socialized with Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, and Igor Stravinsky. In 1946 he moved to Mexico, where he spent 30 years building a unique ensemble of Surrealist architecture in collaboration with the indigenous population. The unrecognized grandson of Edward VII, he built the largest private collection of Surrealist art, beginning in 1933. Without his patronage, Surrealism would not have achieved the prominence it has today.

Selected Filmography
2022 | Video clip for “Ballade vom Sprayer” (Sophie Hunger)
2021 |Harald Naegeli – Der Sprayer von Zürich
2020 |Elias Crespin – L'Onde du Midi, with Valery Faidherbe, Musée du Louvre

Selected Prizes and Awards
2022 | Nominated for German Documentary Film Award forHarald Naegeli – Der Sprayer von Zürich
2021 | Nominated for Sichtwechsel Award at Filmfest Hamburg forHarald Naegeli – Der Sprayer von Zürich
2017 | Artist in Residence, Goethe-Institut, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Presented as part of  the long-standing cooperation with the Villa Aurora, where Villa Aurora Fellows showcase their projects (past, present, and future) here at the Goethe-Institut.