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Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa
/11
    • Lacrimosa
  • 2024
  • video, transferred from 16mm film, b&w, sound
  • 11min, 4sec
“Lacrimosa” (Engl.: tearful) is a film paying tribute to Anni, Josef Dabernig’s aunt, who was an organist and teacher. In this film, she orchestrates a procession of the artist’s grandchildren. The film tells the story of a child’s coffin being carried down through the house and then out into the Austrian village where the artist grew up, in the process evoking a silent, ghostly atmosphere that poses many questions regarding what to make of this Catholic ritual. In parallel, the writer and longtime Dabernig collaborator Bruno Pellandini created a spoken narration about his grandparents’ house in Switzerland. This overlay effect in which the atmospheres and architectures of the two homes are explored in different ways gives rise to a doubled quality expressed through the memories of the respective inhabitants, a doubling that is echoed by the fact that Dabernig’s aunt Anni unexpectedly passed away five days after the film had been shot. W.S.