The program in conversation: viktoria schmid/eva giolo brings together two bodies of work that, despite their differences, have a multitude of resonances and points of contact, thus demonstrating how diverse the contemporary engagement with analog filmmaking can be.

Each projection of film is unique and lively. (…). The film might carry the dust from a previous screening, from a city I have never visited, but my film has. (Viktoria Schmid, Why do I make prints?)

After studying at Schule Friedl Kubelka in Vienna, Viktoria Schmid has since 2010 built a body of work at the intersection of cinema and exhibition space that explores historical image-making processes and the study of human perception. The first part of the program brings together works from different phases of this preoccupation starting with early films such as Golan (2012) to more recent works such as A Proposal to project in Scope (2020) or KatharinaViktoria (2)021 (2021). The two films of the Proposal-series exemplify the fascinating two-fold nature of Schmid's practice, which on the one hand is conceptually shaped, but on the other hand, in its treatment of light and movement, always remains sensually and concretely experienceable. These films, in turn, enter into a dialogue with two works that Viktoria Schmid has placed alongside her program, indicating her interest in the history of the medium: Étude cinégraphique sur une arabesque (1929) by film pioneer Germaine Dulac and Démolition d'un mur (1896) by the Lumière brothers. An attentive look from the early years of cinema (Lumière) to the beginning of the end of analog film production in W O W (Kodak) (2018) thus points to the resistance of the medium: re-wound and re-exposed on 35mm, those who were thought dead still live a little longer.

Eva Giolo is a film, video and installation artist whose work combines the peculiarity of analog film production with a particular focus on the female experience. Her films explore themes of intimacy, language, care, and memory with a concise rhythm and a sense of balance between abstraction and concreteness. Her film Silent Conversations (2023) opens the second part of the program and also functions as a bridge to the previously shown KatharinaViktoria-series. A series of embraces, each 20-seconds long, testify to a special care in dealing with one's surroundings and the materiality of film. A Tongue Called Mother (2019) introduces us to the complexity and magic of growing up and the relationship between language and things. Next is Guy Sherwin's Tap (1974), which takes the dripping of a tap as the occasion for a play of light, shapes and rhythm, is woven into the program. The simultaneously playful and enigmatic films Flowers Blooming in our Throats (2020), made during the COVID lockdown, and The Demands of Ordinary Devotion (2022), filmed in Rome, conclude the second part. Both films, each in its own way, create contrasts and resonances between images and sounds rhythmized by a spiraling, musical montage.

With many thanks to the filmmakers, who curated this selection and will be present for the screening.