Reduced Still-Life

Another book adaptation. "Reducing" has the nice double meaning of "making smaller" and "bringing back", and accordingly, Reduced Still-Life, a film of just the right length at 36 seconds, brings the form of still life back to its principle. The core elements of society that a still life likes to display are not found here, as in classic paintings, in nature made available, in bourgeois décor or spiritual arrangements. Instead, they are found in information that accumulates, with hints of an informal archive. Thus, in Schmidt Jr.'s still life, documents, notes and paperbacks lie on the wood grain of a table – recorded, but not grasped, in rapid cuts and blurred movements. They lie still in their still life. Their legibility is reduced, thus also brought back to the point where reading/collecting struggles with that absence through which writing first becomes a trace. Eagle eyes see the lettering "ZENTRUM MOZARTGASSE 4" and "FILMKRITIKER KOOPERATIVE", slow eyes rest for seconds on book covers: "Das Theater des Absurden" and "Das fehlende Glied in der Kette". Once again, everything has been said. (Drehli Robnik)