WOMEN. Walter Pichler and St. Martin

Sasha Pirker´s film travels to the rural region of the Burgenland and specifically to St. Martin, to visit a territory the artist, sculptor and architect Walter Pichler transformed over the course of several decades into an utterly unique living space for himself, his family and his sculptures: Art and life, nature and construction, family history and art history interpenetrate one another here. The camera explores the dwellings with curiosity but always discretely, proceeding from the workshop out into the garden, back into a shed, barns, attics, annexes and new buildings on the estate. The voices accompanying what is seen belong to Elfi Tripamer-Pichler and Anna Tripamer, the artist´s wife and his daughter, who recall how artmaking and life unfolded with Walter Pichler in this very special place. The perspective their stories provide is intimate, much as the ensemble of constructions which have always remained private. Their memories – including omissions, repetitions, empty pauses and accents – intersect with the camera´s view of the private art/architecture. The viewer cannot avoid looking for connections between the constructions and what is said, inevitably finding symmetries, correspondences, and crossings that indicate memories and also counteract them. Sasha Pirker honors the direct and indirect collaborative role played by the title´s "Women" in creating this living space and life work. The two protagonists occasionally appear at the edges of the film image, disrupting the often symmetrical, single-point view of the architecture as they carefully open the structures and get them going. It is they who make an unobstructed view of Walter Pichler´s art at all possible. (Martin Pieper)

Translation: Eve Heller