The discomfort of culture

the foreign, Kathrin Resetarits
1999, 16mm, 29 min

Art & Revolution, Ernst Schmidt jr
1968, 16mm, 2 min

I am working, Sabine Marte
1996-98, video, 20 min

Subcutan, Johannes Rosenberger
1988, 16mm, 20 min

Kathrin Resetarits calmly stages how a single mother and her child try to adapt to social conditions. The post-war cultural climate encouraged the public's confrontation with radical actionist performances, culminating in the legendary "Uni-Ferkelei" (Kronen Zeitung), which Schmidt Jr. also filmed. In her early video works, Sabine Marte playfully attacks linguistic codifications. She exaggerates, rhythmises, invents her own artistic language that always reflects the medium. Grotesque facial expressions, distorted shooting angles and trashy presentation reinforce the liberating effect. Subcutan by Johannes Rosenberger assembles a fiercely biting portrait of Vienna in 1988, when protests against the repression of crimes committed during the Nazi era and Waldheim as its enthroned representative were the order of the day. (bbu)