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Via Dolorosa (2018)

The short film "Via Dolorosa" reflects different aspects of pain, using accident crosses as the starting point. The music written for four-part choir, string quartet and percussion is formally and sonically a reference to the Christian motif of the Way of the Cross, which - in its original form - included seven stations analogous to the number of segments of the film.

At the same time, portraits of people killed by traffic accidents are presented in the form of a photographic installation in seven pools (each one in turn containing seven liters of water). The function of the water here refers on the one hand to its "cleansing" and "pain-relieving" effect, on the other hand, the transient nature of the pain is to be symbolized by the gradual dissolution process of the color pigments.

The presentation as three-dimensional objects as well as the dimensionality resulting from the reflections of the water surface are also to be understood as an expression of my interest in overcoming the dimensional limitations of the photographic genre.

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Screens (2017)

In this series I explored various digital media using digital and analogous cameras to record pure colors rendered on computer and mobile screens. Each photo has been taken following a defined procedure: a pure color (i.e. red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, black or white) has been rendered on a screen, recorded with a macro lens, re-displayed on the same screen, recorded, and so on.

Depending on display quality and the number of recursions the procedure imagary turned out to vary greatly from what was expected to be pure red, green or yellow, thus rendering random abstract patterns from some of which the original color can hardly be infered.

What I was mainly interested in was the generation of some kind of opaque, self-referential photographsm taking their path away from what photography is usually expected to deliver as a narrative or documentary medium referring to 'something' that has been there in time and space: the subject.

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Irreversible (2016)

I was well beyond fifty when, for the first time, I felt the need to make my own body the content of my work. There was a desire to explore the irreversible changes of an aging body, the greying tufts of hair, age spots and scars, the increasing laxity of wrinkling skin. The camera is honest, cathartic and liberating, triggering a process of self-approach. I sculpted my body, tried different poses and light settings. Since the result was never directly visible to me through the viewfinder, there was always a moment of surprise. In a strangely distanced way, I was fascinated by the great variety of textures formed by the skin, the patterns of light and shadow forming through folds and shapes, it seemed I was not a reflection of myself, but a kind of found landscape.

"Your Body is a Battleground" - a phrase that Barbara Kruger placed on one of her iconic works - got stuck in my head. Although meant in a completely different, feminist context, this fight will take place on many levels. On the other hand, I think that the body can be the place where we can finally make peace with ourselves.

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Lifelong dreams / habitats (2014)

Ever since my youth, I have been passing by a shell, which stood out for its opulence and its boastful appearance. Towers with bay windows, a generous extension for garages and a large plot revealed the lofty intentions of the original client. But something seemed to have gone awry. The ambitious building never got a facade, the window caves remained empty. This house probably kept this condition for over thirty years.

By accident I discovered during my trips through the northeastern Lower Austria and the adjacent Czech region, that these unfinished buildings were not an isolated phenomenon. I started interviewing acquaintances for buildings of this or similar type in their surroundings.

Whether houses at different stages of completion or remote swimming pools, all objects had in common that they had never been completed, at least for a period of twenty years each. Rarely have I had the opportunity to talk to the owners of the properties, interestingly, they always seemed to apologize for their condition ...

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© 2025 - Reinhard Nadrchal