besenbahn (2001, remastered 2020) from stadtmusik on Vimeo.
2001, 10 min
music: tamtam (Sam Auinger, Hannes Strobl)
video: Dietmar Offenhuber
“the freewaysystem in its totality is now a single comprehensible place, a coherent state of mind, a complete way of life” – Reyner Banham
“It´s subject is not ”natural” perception, but perception put in motion by modern means of transportation, and therefore implicitly the history of an epochal transformation of the way in which time and space is experienced.
It has come to a preliminary end in suitable contexts – for example cities such as Los Angeles, which has been shaped by the history of motorization – where moving perception now seems to be regarded as integral to natural perception.
The thesis presented by besenbahn in this regard would therefore be that the specifically aesthetic quality of such animated perception is absent from the forms of audiovisual representation which are already considered natural (such as indicating movement by means of a tracking shot): In its fragmentation of the continuum of perception, the “subjective geometry which defines space through intervals of time” (Dietmar Offenhuber) illustrates a manner of experience which could remain submerged because it is already so familiar” – Vrääth Öhner
Screenings & exhibitions: Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM) Karlsruhe, Transmediale 03, Berlin, Anthology Film Archives New York, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Sonar 2005, Barcelona, Impact Festival, NL, Regensburger Kurzfilmwoche 2017, Cinemateque Tel Aviv, DAZIBAO Montreal, Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, Kinematek Copenhagen, Semana de Cine Experimental Madrid, Slovenska Kinoteka Ljubljana, Hammer Museum Los Angeles, Image Forum Tokyo, Filmhaus-Kino Vienna, Nantes Experimental Film Week France, Bawag Contemporary Vienna, 2nd biennal Canarias Tenerifa, SK Stiftung Köln, Sonar 2005, Barcelona, Kunsthalle Lophem Belgium, Architekturzentrum Wien, Sonar 2004, 25. Filmfestival Max, Saarbrücken, 34. Short Film Festival, Tampere, Int. Film Festival, Mumbai, Museum of the Moving Image, New York, VIDEOEXperimental, Zürich, COURTisane, Ghent, Video Festival, Dallas, 52. Int. Film Festival, Melbourne, Int. Film Festival, La Rochelle, ZKM, International Media art award, Karlsruhe, exground on screen 2003, Wiesbaden, Cucalorus Annual, Wilmington, Int. Media Art Biennale Wroclaw, 19. Int. Kurzfilm Festival, Hamburg, Nemo Festival, Paris, Sonar 2003, Barcelona, Kunsthalle Projectspace, Wien, Diagonale 02, Graz, internat. Filmfest Dresden 02, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, archipelago filmfestival, Rome, Italy, Filmarchiv Vienna, Austria, ISEA 02, Nagoya, Japan, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Biennale of media and architecture, Graz