Evamaria Schaller.

Die Wilderin von Montafon

Date: 2011
Length: 21:20 min.
Format: 16:9
Specifications: Colour, Sound, Single Channel
Courtesy the artist and KHM Köln

Der Blick schweift über ein Bergpanorama, von weitem richtet er sich auf Details einer Hütte, man hört Vogelgezwitscher. Stimmungsvoll und malerisch beginnt „Die Wilderin vom Montafon“ von Evamaria Schaller. Aufnahmen von Bergen, reißenden Flüssen und grünen Wäldern ziehen sich durch den Film. Die Natur ist das bestimmende Bildmotiv und das Video erinnert streckenweise an Szenen eines Heimatfilms. Diese Idylle wird durch surreale Szenen unterbrochen, in denen sich eine junge Frau mit Frischhaltefolie an einen Baum wickelt oder mit aufgesetztem Geweih wie ein gehetztes Reh durch den Wald läuft. Die Protagonistin lebt nicht nur in der Natur, sondern sie verschmilzt förmlich mit dieser. In diese surreale Erzählung werden dokumentarisch wirkende Szenen montiert, in denen immer wieder eine ältere Jägerin auftritt. Die dargestellten Jagdszenen der jüngeren und der älteren Frau verweben sich zu einer rätselhaften Handlung, deren inkongruente Bildsprache durch den Einsatz unterschiedlicher Filmformate zusätzlich verstärkt wird. Nahaufnahmen von Wasser, Fell, Wolle, Fleisch und Holz verleihen dem Film seine starke haptische Wirkung. Die Künstlerin, die zugleich die Darstellerin ist, befasst sich hier mit der historischen Figur der „Wilderin vom Montafon“, die in den 1980er Jahren in den österreichischen Bergen wilderte. Eine direkte Abbildung der Wilderin war jedoch nicht möglich, weshalb die Künstlerin die Geschehnisse auf ihre Weise interpretierte.

Stefanie Maria Weisshorn

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?

I would love to present my film in the context of the exhibition. It was not planned as  a "cinema"-movie.
I also presented the work for my diploma in an exhibition combined with an audio-installation and objects.
In the exhibition there is the possibility to come back to stay concentrated. Even when you just see only some moments of the film it hits you different. For sure it is really good to present a film in cinema as well, there you have a big audience, people are in this black box and are concentrated to see the movie, because there is nothing else to see, except your sitting neighbors. But this movie comes also out of life. And there is not only one reality in life. There are a lot of different parallel-worlds and parallel-truths. It is the simultaneous view I am interested in.  Everything is influencing - also how you watch a movie.

► 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?

The topic of the film was connected to this kind of reflections, yes. The topic of poaching, especially when a woman does it, quite hit me, when I first heard about it. And it was a real story! I was looking for this special woman for about half a year until I got her telephone-number. It had also the feeling of poaching, of hunting something - not something - a human being with a special story. But not in an journalistic way. I wanted to get to know more about her and the moment we´ve met, it felt as if we have been knowing us for a long time.
There were a lot of connections between us - my own childhood or the longing for deep loneliness what you only can find in nature. The topic of nationality, home and being in between, the liminality is a topic I am working on a lot. This feeling of being "in steady transformation",walking along an edge, where everything could change from one moment to another, those transformational moments are ideas which all of my artworks address. Also the social environment influences. I interact with site-specific conditions where I have to adjust myself. It doesn´t matter if in filmmaking or performance Art, it has to do with respect for each other and communication with people and space.

► 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?

I work as a performance-artist and film-artist. I use both kinds of expressions and combine them. There is no artistic expression more important than the other, but can support each other quite well. Also in my film "Die Wilderin vom Montafon" I use performances as "storyline", as an reflection of what happens in those mountains. Film - especially the Super8mm film, carries a lot of history and historical aesthetics which I love. It is the performativity of the film-material I am interested in. First it is hidden in a little black box after exposing it. It needs time and chemicals to process and afterwards it is an haptical material, which can be cut manually. The idea of this process is both in performance Art and film-art quite important. The process of creation and showing. For sure the film has different qualities than the performance Art. It is repeatable. But even the situation you are watching a movie can not recur. 

► 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?

What situations stay in your memory after watching the movie and how do you connect it to your own life?