Documentary 'Wenzel fights' shown at Open Rotterdam

Sunday February 11th Wenzel fights by director Charlotte Meijer premiered on Open Rotterdam TV. This documentary powerfully portrays the motivations of the Rotterdam artist Anne Wenzel.

Meijer meets the artist when she starts sculpting it Razzia Monument and becomes intrigued. We first see her throw the clay on the floor of her studio, a sculpture that will be four meters high, and slowly, piece by piece, grows under the hands of Anne and her team. During this creative and technical process, Anne talks about a deep-seated sense of guilt that was ingrained during her German childhood. The Second World War and its consequences play a major role in her life and consciousness. Anne's deep-seated aversion to injustice comes straight from this history; she uses her talent as an artist to fight this injustice.

Anne also fights against the number policy of museums, even in the boxing ring. She wins a fight against the director of Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and gets a carte blanche exhibition. Her activism therefore creeps into every corner of the museum: we see a tense and combative Anne building her exhibition and populating it with boxers.

If it Razzia Monument is finished at the end of October 2023 and finds its way to the Parkkade, Charlotte asks Anne whether this image, about the Rotterdam war years, conceived with so much substantive knowledge and made with so much love, reduces her sense of guilt somewhat. Never, is the answer.

The film takes a unique look at the creation of it Razzia Monument, reason for CBK Rotterdam to contribute. Marjolijn van der Meijden, project leader Visual Arts & Public Space at CBK Rotterdam, explains the support for this film as follows: 'Wenzel fights provides an insight into an unusual life in which unusual choices are made. Anne works without wanting to make concessions and literally fights for them. At the same time she is able to be vulnerable.'

Wenzel fights is a film by Charlotte Meijer, produced by Werf Film, commissioned by OPEN Rotterdam and made possible by BKOR, a program of CBK Rotterdam.