Jan 24, 6 pm

Markus Brandstätter

[abschatten]

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«[abschatten]» is a video experiment that attempts to bring existences and occurrences that are overshadowed or blocked out by society into the light. Klagenfurt in 2010 is the location where these existences and occurrences are addressed.

More and more people in our society are being pushed into the shadowy areas of daily life. For a fleeting moment we appear to take an interest in them – we pay attention to them and appropriate whatever seems useful. This is often quite easy since the shadowed existences simply do not exist for the general population, or are easily ignored. In most cases they are poor people, the disabled, the disadvantaged, unemployed alcoholics, elderly people, immigrants, beggars, academics, artists, and outsiders of all forms. If they do not prove themselves sufficiently compatible, they are either made more compatible or are overshadowed and marginalized by society. Now and then the media takes an interest in these un - usual life forms; they invade, document them and then present them as freakish, alien beings. They do not come from another planet, however, but exist among us in a shadowed, segregated space that we are taking less and less notice of these days.

Is our existence not defined by what we have in common? It can never be «only» a single part – it is not «only» what we see in the mirror, in the gleam and sparkle of isolated, apparently wealthy elites. Often, there is a necessary behind, a necessary beside and a before. The terms «abschatten» and «verschatten,» which play a great role in the upcoming project, were borrowed from Jean Paul’s book «Siebenkäs.»1

The main plot of this montage experiment consists however of a conversation between the two hospital guard dogs Cipión and Berganza, from the book «The Dialogue of the Dogs»2 by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. (Markus Brandstätter)

1 Jean Paul, «Siebenkäs», Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1987.

2 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, «Gespräch zwischen Cipión und Berganza, Hunden des Auferstehungs hospitals», Zürich: Manesse Verlag, 1989.

Markus Brandstätter lives in Klagenfurt and works in the fields of cognitive science and cinematography. Doctoral thesis in 2006 on [Cinematographic Difference]. Photo und video exhibition at Galerie Vorspann with Bella Ban. Video and camping installation at room in progress, raj, Klagenfurt. In 2011 video about a dance performance by Marina Koraiman for the MMKK.