Abb. | Fig.: Sybille Ruppert in her studio, Photo: Archive Estate of Sybille Ruppert
Abb. | Fig.: Documentary behind the scenes, HR Giger Museum Gruyère, 2024
Abb. | Fig.: Documentary behind the scenes, HR Giger Museum Gruyère, 2024
Abb. | Fig.: Young Sybille Ruppert, Photo: Archive Estate of Sybille Ruppert
Abb. | Fig.: Documentary behind the scenes, HR Giger Museum Gruyère, 2024
Abb. | Fig.: Documentary behind the scenes, HR Giger Museum Gruyère, 2024

Sibylle Ruppert

Documentary

Premiere 2025

With their portayals of monstrous creatures and grotesque bodies, Sibylle Ruppert‘s artworks possess a mesmerizing allure. Her fantastical scenes, sometimes violent and sexually charged, simultaniously repel and captivate, drawing viewers into the spell of a dystopian universe. Despite having several exhibitions and initial successes during her lifetime (1942-2011), Ruppert‘s works largely went unnoticed. Faced with waning recognition, the artist distanced herself from the art world. Towards the end of her career, Ruppert taught in prisons, mental hospitals and drug clinics before passing away in seclusion. Her oeuvre appears to have been ahead of her times‘ artistic taste.

The documentary traces the path of the artist, commencing with the exhibition Sibylle Ruppert Dancing in Darkness, held in the summer of 2023 at Kunsthalle Gießen, which offered a fresh perspective on Ruppert‘s work to the public. Dr. Nadia Ismail, director of the Kunsthalle, and Prof. Dr. Paul Walter, a long-time friend, patron of the artist and inheritor of her estate, set out on a journey to reconnect with the artist. The film illuminates the beginnings of Ruppert‘s artistic career in Frankfurt and Offenbach, her time in Paris and her friendship with the Swiss artist HR Giger. Simultaniously, archival footage and interviews with contemporaries reveal Ruppert‘s complex mind and at times tormented drive, which she translated into her distinctive visual language. Shoots of locations of her artistic production, such as her apartment in Paris, and unseen original photographs complete the exploration and provide insights into Ruppert‘s life and work. Visits to current exhibitions and conversations with gallerists in Paris and London, who represent and showcase Ruppert‘s work today underscore the artist‘s relevance posthumously. Their renewed interest once again higlights, how Ruppert‘s art anticipated its contemporary significance and make apparent the overdue need for her rediscovery.

Date of the premiere to be announced