Elements of a Landscape
Single-channel video, 2018, 38 min, 16:9, HD, b/w and color, stereo, English

concept, direction, edit, production: Barbara Juch, Laura Nitsch
performances: Sheri Avraham, Barbara Juch 
camera: Laura Nitsch, İpek Hamzaoğlu 
music: Barbara Juch, Simon Trummer

Based on the prevailing cultural-historical narrative that encompasses the Austrian mountain resort Semmering – the former mundane summer and spa-destination for the Viennese bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century – Elements of a Landscape interweaves both fictional and documentary material and locates its story in the year 2020. The focus of the film is the Grandhotel Panhans. Strolling through the hotel and its surrounding landscape, we follow two tour guides who work in short-term, seasonal employment. Listening to their increasingly uncanny stories, it becomes evident that the two women seem to know more than they can actually know, and they seem to comment on things that they might actually not be allowed to refer to. Playing with the seductiveness of tour-guide language and the common understanding of the landscape through which we move, the film asks how such a multi-layered topography is constructed and what will have remained of its elements in the near future.

Text by Diedrich Diederichsen →