3 Nights

Three four-second sequences, punctuated by black film. Following – or alongside or based on – shoots around P.R.A.T.E.R. (1963-1966), Ernst Schmidt Jr.'s filmmaking once again visits the Wurstelprater amusement park. Double exposures show roller coasters and other attractions of this Viennese landmark in rapid succession, or rather: they nestle even more closely to these lights, movements and rhythms than film and the Prater already are to each other. A little like the cinema, an amusement park (especially if it is old and not too renovated) is a space of profane illumination that is at once planned and capitalised, as well as heterotopic and weird. Here, it is a space that declares itself in neon signs: "Spielhalle", "Reise-Andenken" – "Arcade", "Travel Souvenirs". Petty bourgeois people traverse this space. As always, Schmidt Jr.'s image suggests reading it as well as within it. (Drehli Robnik)