Vater / Father, 2005, U.R.A.
link to the video
The 13-minute-long film made in Spring 2005 in a graveyard, shows static film take of a grave. This grave is different from the others in the graveyard, a grave that we are not used to seeing in that form. On the gray headstone is a simple epitaph: Vater (Father).
Is this single word exactly how much he deserved to be respected, or the opposite – this was too much respect for him? Did he deserve it at all? Was he a real father? Or maybe this was THE father, the one that everybody would love to have as a father and call him that? Whom is this message for, for the one, under the earth (father) or the one over it (child (ren))? Why was this grave made at all? In front of this video a bench is installed, so the visitor can sit in front of the grave (video projection) and have a rest. As long the observer watches this video more and more questions get opened. Who was the Father and who is/were the child (ren)? Why is there no name or dates of birth and death, dedication, or something that can identify the father or the child (ren)? Was the father bad to others but good to the child (ren)? Or was the father bad to the child (ren) and good for himself, and this was the revenge. Revenge to the dead man? What kind of meaning has the cross over the word father? Does this cross have a religious meaning. Could this be read as: “father is dead” or “father is carrying now “the cross” that he didn’t used to, during his life or rest in peace or…