Film Without Film

Martin Ebner

2013, Graz, Austria

Painted columns,
after: Carolee Schneemann, Fuses, 1965–68;
George Landow, The Evil Faerie, 1966;
Harry Smith, Mirror Animations, 1957/79

Institution
Kunsthaus Graz,
temporary installation, inside

part of the exhibition:
Promotion Prize of the Province of Styria for Contemporary Fine Arts 2013
Kunsthaus Graz, curated by Jaroslaw Suchan

Location
in the exhibition space of Kunsthaus Graz, first floor

Duration
One month

Synopsis
Experimental film presented in the form of painted preexisting architectural columns, spread out in the exhibition hall. The segments correspond to the cuts of the specific historical structural films, the colouring corresponds to the average colouring of the individual scene.

Based on the idea that the medium of film has, over the last 40 years, transformed itself from its analog, celluloid-based material form into a parallel digital unit of information, I was interested in what happens when one goes backwards again: from the „psychic object“ that perhaps exists as a unit in memory to the physical object that occupies space – and contains time. Film Without Film is the title of three painted supporting columns of the museum, which derive their individual structure and color patterns from the patterns and sequences of scenes of individual important experimental films of the 1960s and 70s.