To experience Zumthor's work, two video installations were created showing twelve life-size buildings, shot from six different angles. At the exhibition, the viewer will feel transported to the reality of the architectural spaces. The installations (re)create the distances, shapes, light and sound of Zumthor's buildings, in a fully enveloping sensation that manages to erase the physical absence of the constructions themselves.
Shot in 40-minute segments, the projections are shown in loop, in a non-stop flow of images. At different times of day, the exhibition visitor can find him or herself “visiting” Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Thermal Bath Vals or any other of 12 featured buildings.
Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects 1986-2007.
Exhibition view - Filminstallation by Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch.
© 2008 ExperimentaDesign / Photo: Luis Silva Campos
SIX SCREENS, SIX PROJECTORS, SIX CAMERAS
On the film installation by Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch at the Kunsthaus Bregenz
[...]Six stationary cameras directed simultaneously at six points of a building for forty minutes produce a constant stream of images in which the structure appears from frequently to randomly as part of the surroundings or as the spatial setting for a particular living or recreation situation in the building’s interior. The magic of the images will come from the interaction of these six film sequences as they are simultaneously projected exactly as they were filmed onto six large screens.
The screens are freestanding and face in different directions throughout the room. The projectors in the exhibition space have been set up exactly as the cameras had been while shooting the building.
The directions from which the films were shot also conform to the alignment of the film projectors; the films were all shot at eye level and with normal lenses. The playback situation at the Kunsthaus therefore corresponds 1:1 with the shooting situation on location.
Since one sees all six films simultaneously and experiences them together from different angles in a way that would not be possible in real life, the visual and acoustic impressions start to overlap and consolidate. The installation conveys a feeling of the presence of the buildings in their surroundings and in everyday life, a feeling of the life taking place in and around them. And that is a lot.
Peter Zumthor