Werner Nekes: The Filmmaker as Collector and Model

Abstract

Werner Nekes was an experimental filmmaker and teacher who became a collector when he wanted to demonstrate the origins of basic principles of cinematic technologies-projection, the illusion of movement, representation of space, etc.-to his students. The goal of his collection was to document such principles rather than accumulating devices. Collecting was for him a theorydriven activity, and the numerous exhibitions that he organized were structured according to the ideas that he wanted to convey. He did not, however, seek recognition from academics. He was an erudite rather than a scholar, and he expressed his media historical views in films, in exhibitions and exhibition catalogs rather than in academic books or articles.