2010–2013: BAWAG CONTEMPORARY
Sonia Leimer
Neither in motion nor at rest
15/7/2010—25/8/2010
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives . . . The phrase “lost film” is also used in a literal sense for instance where footage of deleted scenes, unedited and alternative versions of feature films are known to have been created but can no longer be accounted for.
(Wikipedia)
Celluloid is a delicate and dangerous substance that decomposes easily when stored under unfavorable conditions; it is also highly inflammable. Estimates suggest that eighty percent of all silent movies are undiscoverable, have vanished, and are probably lost forever.
Yet there are also feature films made after the Second World War of which we have only heard, for which there is only oral evidence. Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s This Night (1966) is such a lost film. We have no idea of its contents. We only know that the money for it came from the actor Christoph Roser and that it was shot on 8 mm. Fassbinder wrote the script, directed it, and was the man behind the camera. He also seems to have played a part in his first film.
The subject Sonia Leimer deals with in her exhibition “Neither in motion nor at rest” is unstable material – the fragile and unsteady which pushes between the seemingly solid, robust, and durable. The concrete, physical space and its relationship with the artist’s mise-en-scène. The connections between today’s society, personal stories, and the classical canon of pictures. Leimer’s work reveals a clear awareness of present-day key issues and condenses fundamental statements on material, medium, and display in filmic, architectural, and spatial solutions.
The new BAWAG Contemporary rooms with their contrasts of light and dark, their different levels, and the generous vista through the gallery are very convenient for the artist’s plans, which are not aimed at exploring a complete whole, but rather fragile constructions along boundaries in space. The exhibition is about feigned spaces, spaces made from materials that pretend to be something different. About architectures presenting themselves as transparent, about imagined, narrated, remembered spaces.
Investigating the cinematographic space as an autonomous realm in five works, all of which date from 2010, Sonia Leimer explores constructions of space and time, the patterns and hierarchies behind them, as well as the part the imaginary plays in this context.
excerpt from the text Lost Film for the catalog
Curator: Brigitte Huck
Press: Christina Werner
(Wikipedia)
Celluloid is a delicate and dangerous substance that decomposes easily when stored under unfavorable conditions; it is also highly inflammable. Estimates suggest that eighty percent of all silent movies are undiscoverable, have vanished, and are probably lost forever.
Yet there are also feature films made after the Second World War of which we have only heard, for which there is only oral evidence. Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s This Night (1966) is such a lost film. We have no idea of its contents. We only know that the money for it came from the actor Christoph Roser and that it was shot on 8 mm. Fassbinder wrote the script, directed it, and was the man behind the camera. He also seems to have played a part in his first film.
The subject Sonia Leimer deals with in her exhibition “Neither in motion nor at rest” is unstable material – the fragile and unsteady which pushes between the seemingly solid, robust, and durable. The concrete, physical space and its relationship with the artist’s mise-en-scène. The connections between today’s society, personal stories, and the classical canon of pictures. Leimer’s work reveals a clear awareness of present-day key issues and condenses fundamental statements on material, medium, and display in filmic, architectural, and spatial solutions.
The new BAWAG Contemporary rooms with their contrasts of light and dark, their different levels, and the generous vista through the gallery are very convenient for the artist’s plans, which are not aimed at exploring a complete whole, but rather fragile constructions along boundaries in space. The exhibition is about feigned spaces, spaces made from materials that pretend to be something different. About architectures presenting themselves as transparent, about imagined, narrated, remembered spaces.
Investigating the cinematographic space as an autonomous realm in five works, all of which date from 2010, Sonia Leimer explores constructions of space and time, the patterns and hierarchies behind them, as well as the part the imaginary plays in this context.
excerpt from the text Lost Film for the catalog
Curator: Brigitte Huck
Press: Christina Werner