Film director and screenwriter as well as installation and performance artist Scott Clifford Evans built the new installation Deathspa in the center of the exhibition Splatterhaus! in collaboration with Georg Holzmann and Alexandra Kahl.

The installation will now become the film set for a public film shoot and Deathspa will be a new episode of the episodic film series Murderkino (started in 2019 with George Rei), the artist’s pivotal work in progress, the actual finale of which is not yet in sight. The stage is set in the center of the exhibition space, presenting a whirlpool tub filled with water, bath towels and a painting by upcoming artist Jolanda Rendl. What looks like a spa is really not one, but rather a Lynch-esque interpretation of one by the artist. A place of transition, uncertainty, and the uncanny—mysterious and unsettling. What awaits us in this limbo is held in suspense for now.

Evans sees filming as a performance—artists, staff, and even the audience, as random participants, are directly involved in the action. The latter provide surprise, while actors from various disciplines and artistic fields are the central figures in the film, acting as suspense specialists. When the filming is over, the sets, props, objects, and equipment used on set are treated as art objects, remain on display as they are, and thus carry on the experimental flow between fiction and reality.

Murderkino: Deathspa
Directed by Scott Clifford Evans

Cast:
Ali Janka as Bob Freud
Nancy Mensah-Offei as Ezma
David Moises as Rudi

Crew:
Production Assistants: Fiona Buttazzoni, Johanna Liska
Camera: Francisca Friedrich, Gwendolin Meta Kovacic
Lighting: Julius Zeitlmann
Sound: Chris Janka
Special Effects: Rainer Grilberger, Jan Weiler