16 mm film installation, loop

Austria 2007, 2009

The film strip as a measuring tape that provides a survey into space: Philipp Fleischmann positions his custom-built pinhole camera in a forest – a circular structure approximately 30 meters in circumference. Two 16 mm film strips sit side-by-side in the camera with their emulsions facing toward the center as well as the outside of the circle. A number of people lift a manual shutter for a short instance so that the space surrounding the construction is imprinted on the two surfaces simultaneously. Rather than being fragmented into single frames, each film strip now holds a continuous image.

Two 16 mm projectors are tilted when it is projected, and we see an image of space passing by from a specific point in time: Here, movement is purely the relocation of the filmic gaze. While time stands still, light has been written on the film strip, not to record change but to re-experience space. (Alejandro Bachmann)

Philipp Fleischmann, born 1985, lives and works in Austria.