FOCUS ON Josef Dabernig – Programm 1

With Josef Dabernig, one of the great masters of artistic film visits the Breitenseer Lichtspiele. The exceptional artist, who grew up in Kötschach-Mauthen, Carinthia, studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the mid-1970s and has since created an extensive body of work across diverse media. Since 1996, Dabernig has been producing short films in addition to objects, installations, photography, texts, and performances. These films are presented both in exhibition contexts and at film festivals. Dabernig’s work is characterized by a strict and minimalist artistic language and has received wide acclaim in both the art world and the film world. His oeuvre has been honored through a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna | mumok, the Austrian Recognition Award for Fine Arts, and numerous invitations and awards at prestigious exhibitions and film festivals worldwide. Most recently, his latest film Lacrimosa (AT 2024, 11 min | PROGRAM 2) was nominated for the Austrian Short Film Award.

In his short films, Dabernig often appears himself, usually accompanied by friends and relatives, who perform in strictly choreographed ensembles in non-places, in-between spaces, or against architecturally striking backdrops. Narrative is ever-present but remains fragmentary. His films are marked by physicality, stillness, repetition, and absurd comedy.

Josef Dabernig will take part in an audience Q&A following his film programs.

18:30 | PROGRAM 1
•Wisla (AT 1996, 8 min)
Two men follow the fictional course of a soccer game in the empty Wisla stadium in Kraków. A masterpiece of omission!
•Jogging (AT 2000, 11 min)
The title and the red tracksuit pants of the anonymous driver raise expectations that are never fulfilled. Instead, the film reveals itself as a drive through faceless landscapes, ending at a futuristic building.
•Rosa coeli (AT 2003, 24 min)
A man recalls in voiceover his childhood in a Moravian village, to which he returns to bury his father.
•Hotel Roccalba (AT 2008, 10 min)
Sunday afternoon at the “Hotel Roccalba” – the reason for the presence and actions of a 12-member group in the run-down resort remain hidden.
•River Plate (AT 2013, 16 min)
A group of bathers beneath a monumental highway bridge in the Kanaltal – skin, bodies, textiles, rock, nature.
•Stabat Mater (AT/CH/D 2016, 16 min)
“The sorrowful mother” – in an off-season hotel, a group of guests are trapped in silence and repetitive gestures. Accompanied by a lamentoso organ piece by Christoph Herndler and a voiceover text by Swiss writer Bruno Pellandini about people waiting and hoping.

Curated and moderated by: Lotte Schreiber

Still from: Wisla (AT 1996, 8 min)