Clemens Krauss & Benjamin Heisenberg.

ER

Date: 2012
Length: 05:15 min.
Format: 4:3
Specifications: Colour, Sound, Single Channel
Courtesy the artists

Film sequences, taken amateurishly with a handheld camera, are strung together. They document the life of a fictitious character known only as “Er”. The subject is a boy, described as psychopathic, who grows up in a rural environment near the German-Austrian border and blackmails his parents with outbursts of rage and simulated epileptic fits. A computer-generated voice relates this boy’s history, but in several places the found-footage material does not match the text. Although the voice carries on without a break, scattered film material and coloured areas repeatedly interrupt the individual film sequences. A feeling of uncertainty about the person described creeps up on the viewer and the total lack of emotion in the digitally-generated voice adds to this.

The film material comes from the private collection of Austrian artist Clemens Krauss and German film director Benjamin Heisenberg. Since their adolescence they have created an enormous amount of video material, which they edited in 2011 to produce the film collage “Er”.

Jennifer Eggert

Interview:

► 1. Your work has been chosen among over 2000 festival entries to participate in VIDEONALE.14.  In which context  do you prefer to present  your work, festival/cinema context or exhibition? And what kind of difference does the respective mode of presentation mean for you / your work?

Some of our works are made for a very closed concentrated environment, others are meant to be in a vivid surrounding of other works and passing people. So the mode of presentation is always a basic part in the
development of the works.

► 2. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that
transforms it. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

Looking at "ER" you can say that it is a real merger of different themes and motives of our works. On one hand there is a certain social and psychological claustrophobia in it which can be found in earlier works of both of us. On the other hand there is a humoristic element and an affinity to narration and drama that we have in common. In
fact, it also combines biographical parts of both of us, which strongly links it to all the works we have done.

► 3. In which way is the video medium an excellent possibility to express your
intended subjects, especially in contrast to other media you use? Or do you work exclusively with video?

Both of us don't work in video exclusively. Clemens Krauss is more known as a painter and for his graphic works. Benjamin Heisenberg is a filmmaker of fiction films and has mainly shown video and filmworks. Nevertheless, for both of us, working with video has the possibility to combine abstract and narrational aspects of our work.
Also we both have an interest for the moving image, as well as sound and dialogue as documents that reflect a history as an evidence or as an emotional relict.

► 4. If you have the chance to ask the visitors of the VIDEONALE.14 exhibition
questions about your own work, what would be your question?

How do you feel?