Memento

The basis of this work are 25 photographs in long exposure, which were taken during a dance rehearsal. Like modules, they are rearranged and repeated by me. This creates an artificial, seemingly endless dance that no longer has anything to do with the original choreography.

Following the Baroque model, beauty and death are metaphorically juxtaposed here - a vanitas dance to the transience of life. Here, the flow of time or the passing of lifetime is embodied by water, whether through the acoustic, rhythmic dripping like the ticking of a clock, or visually through the artificially slowed flow of a river

The video is accompanied by the excerpt “The Burial of the Dead” from the poem “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot (1922).

  • Dominik Feistmantl
    Dancer
  • Erika Kassnel-Henneberg
    Director
  • Erika Kassnel-Henneberg
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Video Art, Screendance
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Erika Kassnel-Henneberg

Erika Kassnel-Henneberg creates experimental short films as a one-woman show, independently developing every stage of the complex filmmaking process—from concept and research to production, post-production, and distribution. Her works are time-based media art that critically explore social developments through the use of video, CGI, and artificial intelligence. They navigate the space between reality and simulation, documentation and construction.

Her videos have been presented internationally, including at the FILE - Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo/ Bra, BIDEODROMO - International Experimental Film and Video Festival in Bilbao /Es and IVAHM - International Video Art House Festival Madrid / Es. Kassnel-Henneberg has received several awards. She also teaches at various universities and serves on juries supporting contemporary media art.

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Director Statement

We are the narrative of our own memory and the memory of others about us. This is how our identity is formed in a chronological context.

But today we know that memory is neither true, nor objective, nor complete. We lay traces, collect documents and photographs, and archive them. I see in this an existential doubt: who am I really if I cannot trust my memory and the memory of others? If I leave no traces, did I ever exist?

In the digital age, cloud archives with huge storage volumes are our memory. Algorithms collect vast amounts of data and traces that we leave behind in the infinite expanse of the internet. They find everything and forget nothing. They seem to know us better than we know ourselves. And more than that – they even know with statistical probability what we will do next.
Can they tell us who we are? Can we trust them? Or are these also just distorted images of artificial intelligences whose logic and intentions no one can see through?

The focus of my interest is the human being with his subjective perception and his ability to remember, to forget, to associate and – consciously or unconsciously – to think up his own utopias.