Post Mortem

“(…) It is difficult to define the spatial dimensions of memory. It is there, the room of my childhood, which I am still tidying and which is still dying, at the same time as its inhabitants, – their mortal shell.. (…)” Tadeusz Kantor

Many of our efforts are aimed at overcoming death, whether for medical, scientific, philosophical or religious motives. What is not yet possible in reality is explored all the more in artistic fiction. What-if scenarios are thought through to the end and make us realise that nothing good would come of it. In the style of Tadeusz Kantor’s “Dead Class” and his theatre of death, here I bring a school class back to life post mortem. I sit between them as a link between yesterday and today. The children’s song “When and where will we meet again and be happy?” must remain painfully unanswered.

This work refers to its exhibition site in terms of content and thus creates a link between reality and fiction.

  • Erika Kassnel-Henneberg
    Director
  • Erika Kassnel-Henneberg
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Video Art
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 8, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany, Romania
  • Language:
    English, German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Erika Kassnel-Henneberg


Erika Kassnel-Henneberg is a conceptual and video artist with German-Romanian roots. In her works, she explores the process of remembering and questions identity as an artificial construct between reality and fiction.

Erika Kassnel-Henneberg studied Restoration at the Bern University of the Arts / CH and Interactive Media at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences / DE. She has been working as an artist since 2010 and lives in Anhausen near Augsburg. Her works are shown nationally and internationally in exhibitions and festivals, such as FILE – Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo / BRA or IVAHM – International Video Art House Madrid / ES.

2022 she received the Augsburg District Art Prize for her body of work.

Add Director Biography
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?