The Lamps
2015, 4:10 min

Texts | Images | Video

The Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven né Plotz, was an unsung member of the Dada Movement. A poet, artist, runaway, and all around public provocateur, she actively did not fit into her historical moment, and like most misfits, suffered for it. Some researchers believe that the Baroness was the artist behind Fountain, the ready-made urinal attributed to Marcel Duchamp.

The Lamps details her trip to the Naples Archeological Museum in the early 1900’s where she breaks into 'Il Gabinetto Segretto,' a secret room filled with erotic objects from Pompeii.

The Baroness is not a futurist. She is the future. Marcel Duchamp

written, directed, edited: Shelly Silver
music: Die Schitzelbank, Thomas A. Edison Recording

selected exhibitions
OUTFEST, Los Angeles
NewFest, New York
Berlin International Film Festival/Forum Expanded
Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand
IndieLisboa
Fountain100, Flutgraben, Berlin
Cairo Video Festival, Egypt
IFFR/Rotterdam International Film Festival
Kochi Biennial, India
Goethe Institute, Cairo

awards
Best Experimental Short Film, Outfest, Los Angeles
For its confounding and provocative reflection, we award the Jury Prize for Experimental Short Film to The Lamps, by Shelly Silver.

The Lamps was originally commissioned by Cassandra Guan and Lily Benson’s for their collectively-authored experimental film The Film Ballad of Mamadada.