Nesting Endless

Gleaming light, an apparently weightless room: The camera glides like a space ship along the increasingly distinct contours of an object which appears to multiply into infinity in a mirror room. Its surface consists of two organically shaped plates supported by extended teardrop-shaped legs that lend the futuristic landscape a vertical structure. After a while, close-ups reveal signs of wear and tear hinting at the fact that the object being tilted, illuminated and presented has its origin in the tangible world of actual objects. In his experimental approach to Friedrich Kiesler's "Nesting Table" (1935), Karl-Heinz Klopf incorporates an apt elegance and spherical design in relation to one of Kiesler's central ideas: Like the "Endless House" Kiesler conceived as a constantly flowing space of continuous loops, Karl-Heinz Klopf animates the table to appear both weightless and physical, surreal and used, industrially produced and yet one of a kind appearing amidst endless mass products.  

At some point the virtual space unfolds mechanically and opens into a real place in which several artists gather around the object. It is initially eyed and touched while positioned upside down, before historical photographs assist participatory performative engagement with the object: In reenactments, they drape it with books and drinks to test out its party potential, only to reveal how astoundingly low it stands, its weight and the fact that the two parts of the table can in no way nest perfectly together.
This film is not interested in smoothing over ruptures. It shifts between virtual worlds, filmic form studies, performative didactic play, and a declaration of love for an object that is – as noted in the end credits ­– an endless source of inspiration to Karl-Heinz Klopf. (Christa Benzer) 

Translation: Eve Heller