Peter Kubelka

* 1934, Austria

Born 1934 in Vienna. Upbringing in Taufkirchen, an Upper Austrian farming village.
1941 A mobile cinema comes to the village and leaves a lasting impression.
1944-1947 Member of the Vienna Boys Choir.
As of 1949 hitchhikes through most of Europe. Acquires several languages. Interest in music, literature, philosophy, ethnology; commences long process of liberation from religious indoctrination.
1949-1967 Competitive sports: track and field, judo.
1951 While still in high school decides to pursue filmmaking as a profession.
1952-1956 Studies film in Vienna and Rome.
1955 The rejection of his first film Mosaik im Vertrauen (Mosaic in Confidence) by the film establishment pushes him into the avant-garde.
1956 Participates with Mosaik im Vertrauen in the Biennale di Venezia for Vietnam.
1957-1960 Makes his metric films Adebar, Schwechater, Arnulf Rainer.
1958 First real film exhibition, Forum Alpbach: Adebar pinned onto wooden haystacks as a three-dimensional object.
1962 In desperation destroys the scores of his metric films.
1964 Co-founds the Austrian Film Museum.
1966 First visit to the USA. Finishes Unsere Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa).
As of 1966, de-specialization. Self-taught re-education.
Teaches film at many American universities. Develops his theory on food preparation as the most ancient medium of communication, the "Edible Metaphor".
1968 Cooking Concert in New York, also "Eating the Universe", a TV lecture broadcast live on Channel 13.
1970 Co-founds Anthology Film Archives. Designs the Invisible Cinema.
1973 Restores Dziga Vertov´s Enthusiasm.
1976 Establishes the collection of avant-garde cinema for the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
1978–1999 Professor for Cinema at the art academy Städelschule (Frankfurt, Germany).
1980 Changes the title of master class to "Film and Cooking".
1980 Founds the musical ensemble Spatium Musicum. Concerts in Europe and USA.
1996 Establishes the cycle "What is Film" for the Austrian Film Museum.
2010/2012 Film Ist Analog (a film in progress).
Peter Kubelka´s metric films preceded the international movement of structural cinema. His metaphoric films define a purely cinematographic language, articulated between the elements of sound and image. Kubelka is also known as a non-writing theorist, using non-verbal elements in his lectures, such as music, food, objects, tools, and facial expressions.

Filmography:
2012 Antiphon
1996/2003 Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth)
1975–77 Pause!
1961–66 Unsere Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa)
1958–60 Arnulf Rainer
1957–58 Schwechater
1956–57 Adebar
1954–55 Mosaik im Vertrauen (Mosaic in Confidence)