Interview in CreativPaper Magazine!

DANNY GERMANSEN
brujoart.com

There is something about moving pictures that captivates the imagination like no
other. Transporting you to other worlds, plucking on emotions and providing an experience that touches a multitude of senses. Born in a little town on the west coast of Jutland in Denmark called Ribe, Artist Danny Germansen expressed his creativity through music for most of his teenage years. His first experiments with film began at the age of 21 with depression, disability and mental breakdown being recurring themes across his projects, topics that are close to his heart. Using art as therapy Danny got through his challenging 20’s, marred with mental agony, isolation and loneliness caused by his troubled childhood and two spinal procedures when he was young resulting in him being wheelchair bound. In our interview with Danny, we talk about the aggressiveness of consumerism, his film projects and the rise of Minimalism.

In today’s consumerist driven society, do you think there is an option to have a balance in life?

Yes, I think – If you take power over your own life and not get lured by all the things they try to sell you, but only do and buy want you really need yourself. I still think there is a possibility to have a free mind and think and choose yourself what to do with your life. You can choose yourself if you jump on the consuming wagon of society and jumps off and live your own life by your own norms, by your own rules. We still have freedom of choice.

You’ve made some interesting points with regards to hyper-connectivity and social isolation, could you tell us a bit more about that?

In my country Denmark, who has one of the best social systems in the world.. We have a lot of lonely old people and lonely disabled people. I think the main reason for that is that family or friends don’t take care of each other. I hear a lot of people losing friends if they have an accident or get very sick. And old people who don’́t have visits or help from family. People don’t bother helping and using their time on helping people in their society. But give money to help people in foreign countries. I guess it’s more convenient to pay your way out of the problems than to invest time in real people.

What does art mean to you?

Art more or less has been saving my life. I use making films and video-art as therapy. Having a disability and mental problems from life with sickness and mental abuse from a father and family and suffering neglect as a child .. making art is therapy but also make my life worth living.

When do you think the consumerist race intensified to the level it is now?

I don`t know? I think consumption is getting more and more aggressive. When I watch TV, every commercial block contains mostly fast money loans and online gaming. It seems like very aggressive marketing who sell the dream of getting rich fast or getting money to buy whatever you need, here and now. Its scares me a bit that people is not contempt with what they have, but make a lot of consumer loans to have material things. I ́m not against money or consuming. But believe there are other human values also.

Could you tell us a bit about your film ‘Anti-Social Club”?

The film is a futuristic tale ala George Orwell’s book 1984. Its inspired by the life of and talks with my friend Suzana Lungu. She plays herself as the lead role in the film, and we have won a few awards and selections from international festivals.The story is about choosing to live your kind of lifestyle, without having to follow all the norms of society. The society tells you to live one dream, but Suzana and
others choose to live their dream without the norms of society, That is consuming, make a family, etc. The ANTI-SOCIAL CLUB is the club for those people who choose to live on their own and not follow the norms of society. Suzana made it up as she said. “I will make a club to be myself in and call it ANTI-SOCIAL CLUB”.

Do you think the government should do more to help the ones that struggle to keep up with the social and economical marathon?

As I said earlier, in Denmark we a have a good social system and most of the times it works and people get the help they need. The laws about these issues are good. The problem is the social workers who not always do a proper job and think they should save taxpayers money. Lately here in Denmark you hear a lot of that kind of cases, but mainly it depends on the kind of the person the social worker is. But they don ́t always treat people with problems very nice. And I think you should do whatever you can, too help the elderly, disabled and the mentally ill. The state has always neglected the mental sections. Mental issues don’t seem to have a big priority. So that section does need a little more attention.

What are your thoughts on the recent rise in Minimalism?

It’s probably an answer to the Hollywood and fashion business – Colorful and digital manipulation of reality. I like minimalism because you can cut straight to the bone of the message of your art and it sometimes seems more effective.

Do you have any professional goals for the next year that we should keep an eye out for?

I’́m in pre-production of a short film to shoot between January and March next year and I ́m aiming at having it released around August 2019. The film will follow up on my video- art collection. INNER PROJECTIONS FROM A BROKEN MAN. And will be a story about “A mentally ill person who feels neglected by society and takes revenge.” The title is MANIFESTATION.