Awake, But Dreaming2000

This completely hand processed 16mm film was shot in the Hirschgang Oberer, an extended, curved hallway at the Akademie Schloss Solitude. The filmmaker was residing there in 1998-1999 for a residency, and started several film projects at Solitude. "Awake, but Dreaming" recreates a sense of an endless cyclical, dreamscape that is being conjured up from the deep recesses of the imagination. The images are coupled with a mysterious soundtrack producing uncanny associations: the flapping of wings, shrill cries of birds, a revolver fired off following unseen footsteps, a broken music box plays forgotten tunes from a forgotten childhood. A disembodied, hovering presence evokes a menace that is intimated through the sonorous resonance, but never manifests itself. However, the dreamer never reaches the apex of consciousness, but lingers repeatedly in the periphery of alchemically enhanced light and shadow. The cavernous intrauterine space is one of potentials, where anything can happen if the viewer can enter the portal of experience. Supported by Academie Schloss Solitude