My first filmscene “Behind the Fountain” was built in 1993. The spectator was invited to take on the role of a pedestrian, opening a door and slowly walking down a footpath (toward a camera) in order to listen to a certain text (”Further and further” by the Russian poet Lev Rubinstein). The second filmscene, entitled “The Pastor’s Conversations”, was shown in several places. A special theme for discussion was chosen for each showing, such as “Our Future” (a discussion between Pavel Pepperstein and Boris Groys in Zürich), “Emigration and Wayfarers” (at the Kröller-Müller-Museum in the Netherlands). These themes corresponded to the themes addressed in concurrent issues of the Pastor journal. The film scene “The Preparation of the Catalogue” was built in the Ludwig Museum in Aachen, and finally, in München, in the framework of the exhibition Kräftemessen, I was able to realize two filmscenes, namely “Sorting Out Fake Diamonds” and “Behind the Screen”. The former does not yield to any logic or sense whatsoever (and seems like something from an absurdist movie), while the latter was reminiscent of The Liberator by René Magritte. Here, the spectator was asked to sit behind a screen and, having turned on a camera, to recite a monologue, while all that was visible were his legs.
What was important for me in all filmscenes was to use the context of film as an diversionary maneuver. Yes, of course, video-cameras were in fact installed and kilometers of video tape filmed which I never actually used in the end. The goal lay in something completely different, namely in the actionism of what was taking place. The framework of a film shoot created a situation of stereotypical behavior for the “actor” and produced a sense of absurdity for the exhibition’s random visitor. The spectator was invited to play both role, even if he or she had no idea why.
The functionality of some filmscenes did not contradict the absurdity of others in any way, because in the long term, I plan to release one, unified film, edited from all of these absolutely incompatible fragments of material, which is actually how things are done in real cinema.