Hedda Schattanik & Roman Szczesny: Viktor Al Manouchi

“Viktor” is the protagonist's name, who is crashing into a hermetic space. There seems no end in sight and every little movement, any kind of action that he does becomes an existential need. Lost, trapped, and lonely as he is, Viktor Al Manouchi blazes the trail through the vastness of time. The artist duo Hedda Schattanik and Roman Szczesny try to go through all the levels of film production. Thus, everything- from the scenery to acting and filming is made by themselves.

The video begins with a climb up the Rheinelbe slag heap in Gelsenkirchen, at the top of which stands the sculpture Himmelstreppe by Hermann Prigann. This becomes the starting point for a flight into other, surreal dimensions, until we finally find ourselves in a comically dark visual contemplation to the music of György Ligeti, Terry Edwards and Henry Purcell. (IA)

Hedda Schattanik and Roman Szczesny interweave cinematographic elements with surreal animation, literature, drama, sculpture, photography, and drawing in video installations. Both artists graduated from the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie and have been working together since 2014. They live and work in Düsseldorf. Their main artistic practice expands the traditional boundaries of art-making while reflecting the perceptions, preconceptions, and contradictions which characterize our existence in the world. A dreamlike narrative seems to be the backdrop of each of their artworks. While the observer tries to understand the logic behind the opulence of each image, all that remains is the intensity of each individual moment that questions the human identity. They have exhibited at museums and institutions worldwide, including the K21, Kunstammlung NRW, Düsseldorf (2020); Daily Lazy Projects, Athens (2019); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2019); Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (2019); Museum Insel Hombroich, Neuss (2018); Goethe-Institute, Paris (2017).