can i have 2 minutes of your time?

From the very beginning Brigitta Bödenauer´s video can i have 2 minutes of your time? evokes irritation. While most abstract films make use of monochrome and often digitally generated elements, Bödenauer drew her images with charcoal and pastels and then set them in motion: At first the picture condenses rapidly, accompanied by the rustling of Miguel Carvalhais soundtrack, then seems to gallop forward, driving and pulsing, along with a monotone ringing. Suddenly, a cut; tabula rasa: The screen turns almost completely white, the sound stops abruptly. And cautiously a new drawing of fragile lines takes shape.
The raw material used for Bödenauer´s time study was footage showing a clock over a period of two minutes. The lines and shading in the animations, reminiscent of futuristic or cubist paintings, refer to the forward progression of the clock´s hands. Although there is no trace of the representational basis in the final product, this demonstration of time provides the video´s subtext. A dull monotone bass, like a superimposed layer, evens out the drawings and their varying rhythms, which are based on six different compositions. As a result differing perceptions of time are possible, both uniform and heterogeneous, organic and inorganic. In the same way as the sound, the picture alternates between these two poles: On the one hand Bödenauer makes use of digital technologies, while on the other she also employs an extremely traditional medium. "In the age of chronocracy," wrote Peter Weibel, "a revolt of the body seems less important than a revolt against time, that of subjective time against measured time." A revolt against measured time: can i have 2 minutes of your time? makes a start.
(Nina Schedlmayer)