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Rebecca Horn film image; woman in a empty room holding out her arms with makeshift scissorhands

Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things

Rebecca Horn – Die Seele der Dinge

Portraits

© Rebecca Horn

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International Premiere

For influential German artist Rebecca Horn, art is anarchy and freedom. Her work spans decades and disciplines — from live performance to sculptures, poetry, and film — but is always recognizable by her unique, surreal vision. An upturned grand piano, suspended from the ceiling, briefly bursts with cacophonous life; a helix of metallic bed frames forms a twisted pillar to the sky; a mechanical peacock moves in uncanny patterns; bodies are cocooned in an uncanny apparatus arrayed with feathers and spider-like limbs. At times unsettling, erotic, and uncanny, Horn’s art aims to escape the daily catatonia of the mind.

In Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things, director Claudia Müller recounts Horn’s extraordinary biography, tracing her artistic evolution alongside her personal journey through life. An essential document of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Müller’s film celebrates the unsung legacy of a pioneering visionary.

Content Considerations: Racism

 

Presented by

Media Partner

Director
Featuring

Rebecca Horn, Peter Raue, Marina Abramović, Timothy Baum, Nancy Spector, John Baldessari

Credits
Country of Origin

Germany

Year

2026

Language

In German with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
90 min
Art, Music & Photography Documentary Women Directors
CALA Film

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Martina Haubrich

Producer

Martina Haubrich

Screenwriter

Claudia Müller

Cinematography

Christine A. Maier

Editor

Ruth Schönegge

Original Music

Eva Jantschitsch

Claudia Müller headshot

Claudia Müller

Claudia Müller, born in 1964, is a German documentary filmmaker living in Berlin and Vienna. She is known for her numerous outstanding film portraits, which are primarily dedicated to international artists, and more than 80 women from diverse geographical and cultural contexts have been featured in her ongoing documentary series Women Artists. Müller’s work contributes to an ongoing discussion about identity, gender, sexuality, feminism, female aesthetics, and the visibility of women in art. Her feature-length documentary Elfriede Jelinek-Language Unleashed (2022) was awarded the German and Austrian Film Awards for Best Documentary, as well as the FIRPRESCI Award.

Filmography: Think Big! The artist Katharina Grosse (2020); Heidi Bucher-Transformations (2021); Elfriede Jelinek-Language unleashed (2020); Carson McCullers-Wunderkind (2023)

Photo by Milena Schlösser

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