by Artistic Research PhD Candidates of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Supervisor: Luzius Bernhard
An Ordinary Tree
The documentary project “An Ordinary Tree” seeks to refine my research question, which investigates the degree of a viewer’s consent to participate in the modelling of documents into accurate or truthful statements. How does this “agreement” between the viewer and the filmmaker come about, and what can cause it to fail? In terms of the documentary film, my artistic approach is best described by the term “cross-section film” (Balázs 1884 – 1949). According to Bálazs, the cross-section film “[...] knows no direction determined in advance, no intended dramatic increase, no exact, determined end as a goal.” (Carter, 2010) With “An Ordinary Tree”, I aim to develop an artistic method of research that formulates a goal out of the preoccupation with a subject – and thus, in the documentary sense, creates an approach that is as open as possible.
Wolfgang Konrad is a documentary filmmaker and visual artist based in Vienna, Austria. His previous exhibitions and film projects were realized in various collective associations. His most recent work is an 8-channel installation at the “Museum Brot und Kunst” in Ulm (Germany) in collaboration with Ursula Hansbauer and Clemens Stachel. This installation includes 19 documentaries on nutrition and can be seen as the first attempt to create a cross-section documentary about a given topic.