video/film – Maria Schneider

DEHUMANISATION

Shortfilm, 2021

The human body is dehumanized - it is presented as alien, unreal and surreal, abnormal and alienated. The moving image is combined with music that supports the almost painful dissolution of a familiar appearance. In this way, what makes up the figure of a human being is distorted.
He thus appears unfamiliar as a whole, even though every detail can be easily recognized and classified.

The objectification of the human body, especially that of women, is omnipresent. All too often, advertising etc. prescribe how the female body should look and how it should move. The distance from the familiar body opens up a new perspective on it.

Camera/Editing: Maria Schneider
Protagonist: Sylvie Leiner
Music: Maria Schneider/Nick Acorne “Magnesium”
Running time: 00:08:00

EBONY AND IVORY

Shortfilm, 2018/2021

The short film shows clothes blowing in the wind, hanging on the clothesline of a balcony. Just as the wind makes the clothes dance calmly at the beginning and more strongly in the course of the film, a conversation between two people also develops from a initial morning greeting to a turbulent argument, which is led out by the piece of music “Ebony and Ivory”. The passage sung in the song “Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why don’t we?” is reflected throughout the film in the argument of a pair of lovers and in their everyday life together.

An image of harmony combined with the sound of disharmony.
The video recording was created in 2018 from a chance observation.
In 2021 the idea was taken up to complement it with a voice recording.

Camera/Editing: Maria Schneider
Speakers: Val Smets, Paul Lässer
Music: Monique Kessous, Ebony and Ivory (originally written by Paul McCartney)
Date of creation: 2018/2021
Playing time: 00:02:42

REININGHAUS BLUES

Documentary, 2020/2021

“Graz-Reininghaus was with 54 hectares the largest undeveloped area in a central location in the (...) city of Graz. From about 2017 to 2025, a new urban district for about 10,000 people is to be built here. “*

Over the course of the last few years, various groups (artists, young people, architects, etc.) have temporarily discovered the space for themselves and used it in different ways. Among other things, it served as a place for rehearsal rooms, various exhibitions, a skate hall, a dreamy living space and various events (summer festivals, parties, pizza club, workshops, tours through the old cellars of the Reininghaus brewery,...). An autonomous utopia was temporarily brought to life here and showed what possibilities are hidden in such an abandoned building complex. A free space for artistic development, a place to try things out and let ideas sprout and give them expression.
Less and less of the old walls are now to be seen and, with the exception of a few listed buildings, the utopia that briefly came true is once again becoming something whose existence will only continue to exist in the imagination. The memory remains in the minds of those who helped to create this utopia and those who came to experience it.
Perhaps one day the seed of this illusion will germinate further in another place or sooner or later disappear altogether.

The documentary allows a brief glimpse into the life of a person who has temporarily shaped his existence in this environment. The idea for the introductory Onetake video recording arose after waking up in the morning and was immediately put into action spontaneously. The tour through one of the “base” buildings ends on the rubble hill of the already partly demolished area with the protagonist’s view of the place where the collective self-built skate pool once stood. After the footage of a skate session there, the demolition is shown. The video ends with the departure of the protagonist.
The video was shot in 2020.

Camera/Editing: Maria Schneider
Running time: 00:30:55

BIRD OF THE YEAR - ELEVATOR

Music Video, 2018

The video takes place in a spatial installation by Maria Schneider.

People emerge, outwardly adapted to their environment, passing the time there with television and daydreaming, and in between also repeatedly escaping the monotony by singing and dancing.

Just as the simple musical structuring of Bird Of The Year only becomes an audible sound image by the different characters of the band building a musical construct together, a piece of cardboard from the spatial construct is also just a material, which confirms its usability on a daily basis, but is hardly perceived as a material.
In August 2019 Maria Schneider was invited together with Nora Köhler from Bird of the Year to the “Künstlerhaus Graz” for the 6th edition of the “Convo Club” to discuss spatial perception and visualization of music.

Music Video for Elevator released on the Bird Of The Year/Raccoon Ralley Split LP
Numavi Records 2017
Camera/Editing: Maria Schneider