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Creators
Susanne Wiegner, film-maker, Germany
Georg Trakl, writer, Austria
Synopsis
The visualization of the poem is based on the inscription of Hauser's gravestone where you can read in Latin: "Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious." In the film, the typeface is three-dimensional and builds a sequence of spaces, that is passed by the camera. Images and videos are projected on the letters, that lights up in the dark like kaleidoscopic smithers of memory. By these means the epitaph becomes the abstracted path through Hauser's life from the subtle, slightly colored experiences of nature to the gradually darken spaces of civilisation, to a confusing labyrinth. Towards the end of the poem, the camera leaves the typeface, the script becomes flat again and one realizes Kaspar Hauser's headstone.
Text
Kaspar Hauser Lied
Georg Trakl
Für Bessie Loos
Er wahrlich liebte die Sonne, die purpurn den Hügel hinabstieg,
Die Wege des Walds, den singenden Schwarzvogel
Und die Freude des Grüns.
Ernsthaft war sein Wohnen im Schatten des Baums
Und rein sein Antlitz.
Gott sprach eine sanfte Flamme zu seinem Herzen:
O Mensch!
Stille fand sein Schritt die Stadt am Abend;
Die dunkle Klage seines Munds:
Ich will ein Reiter werden.
Ihm aber folgte Busch und Tier,
Haus und Dämmergarten weißer Menschen
Und sein Mörder suchte nach ihm.
Frühling und Sommer und schön der Herbst
Des Gerechten, sein leiser Schritt
An den dunklen Zimmern Träumender hin.
Nachts blieb er mit seinem Stern allein;
Sah, daß Schnee fiel in kahles Gezweig
Und im dämmernden Hausflur den Schatten des Mörders.
Silbern sank des Ungebornen Haupt hin.
Kaspar Hauser Song
Georg Trakl
Translation: Alexander Stillmark
He truly loved the sun which in crimson descended the hillside,
The paths of the forest, the black singing bird
And the joys of greenery.
Gravely he dwelt in the shade of the tree
And pure his countenance.
God spoke a gentle flame to his heart;
O Man!
Softly his tread found the city at eventide;
The dark lament of his mouth:
I want to be rider.
Yet he was stalked by bush and beast,
House and dusky garden of white people
And his murderer sought him.
Spring and summer and lovely the autumn
Of the just man, his quiet tread
Past the dark chambers of those who dream.
At night he remained alone with his star:
Saw that snow fell into naked branches
And in the dusky hallway the shade of the murderer.
All silver, the head of the unborn sank low.
Susanne Wiegner statement
I create 3D computer animations dealing with literature and with memories. Trained as an architect, I try to generate suspense and emotionality through spaces, objects or certain atmospheres. I like to work with a single camera move, without cuts, I develop the various spatial changes out of the scenery, to create certain moments of surprise.
Susanne Wiegner
Georg Trakl (source)
Screenings
Traverse Vidéo, Toulouse, France, 2017
ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Münster/Berlin, Germany, 2016
Festival Silêncio, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016
Liberated Words, Utopia/Dystopia, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Bath, UK, 2016
Festival Traverse Vidéo, Toulouse, France, 2016
Animate Cologne @ CeC, Carnival of e-Creativity, Shillong, India, 2016
FILE ANIMA+GAMES, at Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015
5th Sadho Poetry Film Fest, Alliance Francaise, New Delhi, India
Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition @ Indie Cork Festival of Independent Cinema, Cork, Ireland, 2015
dotdotdot International Short Film Festival, Vienna, Austria, 2015
FILE: Electronic Language International Festival, FIESP Cultural Center, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015
Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria, 2014
International Poetry Film Festival, Athens, Greece, 2014
Art Visuals and Poetry Film Festival, Vienna, Austria 2014
Bios
Susanne Wiegner, studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and at Pratt Institute in New York City as a DAAD scholar. She works as a 3D-artist in Munich, Germany. For several years she has been creating 3D computer animations dealing with literature and with virtual space. Venues where her work have been shown include group exhibitions at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Art + Technology Center EYEBEAM in New York City, FACT in Liverpool, Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, WRO Biennale in Wroclaw, National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Les Rencontres Internationales in Paris, EMAF in Osnabrück, Videonale in Bonn, Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow and festivals all over the world. In 2011 her film just midnight won the festival award "la parola immaginata" in Bergamo, Italy, and in 2012 her film at the museum won the Ballon-Prize at
crosstalk video art festival, Budapest, Hungary. In 2015 her film the light - the shade was the winner of the international competition at CYCLOP, Videopoetry Festival, Kiev, Ukraine, and received the second place at FILE ANIMA+ Award 2016, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914) was an Austrian poet and brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. While Trakl's very earliest poems are more philosophical and do not deal as much with the real world, most of his poems are either set in the evening or have evening as a motif. Silence is also a frequent motif in Trakl's poetry, and his later poems often feature the silent dead, who are unable to express themselves. (source)
