B_T2 Monika Oechsler SOMETIMES I DREAM

 

 

from 29 January 2021

Monika Oechsler’s exploration of bunker mentality makes uncanny audiovisual reference to the current pandemic. Best viewed using audio headphones.

Monika Oechsler
Sometimes I Dream 2021
HD video loop and sound

Sequence duration: 3.25 min.

Sometimes I Dream is an animated short film by Monika Oechsler that touches upon the fragility of body and mind. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s unfinished short story The Burrow, the film creates an analogy between bunker building mentality and the fear of an unknown enemy invading the bunker. Sometimes I Dream leads the viewer on a tour through the interior of an actual bunker of monumental proportions. The animation reconfigures the bunker as an immersive and experiential environment that becomes synonymous with the body and at the same time playfully references Virtual Reality games.The Pallas High Bunker, constructed in Berlin during WWII using forced Soviet labour, was originally intended to serve as a telecommunications office. The building was reconfigured into a civil protection bunker in the late 80s, with the capacity to shelter 4,800 people. In recent times, bunkers left over from both WWII and the Cold War era have become desirable real estate for wealthy clients.
Commissioned by Beaconsfield
Photography: Monika Oechsler, Pallas Hochbunker, Berlin, Germany
Voice narration: David Crawforth
Script based on The Burrow by Franz Kafka
Animation and sound edit: Monika Oechsler
© 2020 monikaoechsler

Sometimes I Dream is the second  in the series Beacon_Transitions: a lockdown experiment wherein a virtual portal is opened by Beaconsfield for artists to explore, supported by Art Council England’s Emergency Response Fund.

Monika Oechsler, Sometimes I Dream, review by Maria Walsh at Art Monthly, March 2021

‘Monika Oechsler’s three-minute animation Sometimes I Dream, 2021, is the second commission in Beaconsfield’s online series Beacon_Transitions. The first, a commission by Simon Tyszko in collaboration with AD Crawforth, superimposed images of livestream public and social events onto CCTV footage from Beaconsfield’s nine security cameras, arranged in an onscreen grid. Oechsler’s short equally addresses the online screens as a format that acts as a portal to an external world beyond in that in turn uncannily resonates with the experience of being seated in front of it looking in and/or looking on. Beacon_Transitions is supported by Arts Council England’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Funding and Sometimes I Dream both formalises and allegorises the “bunker mentality” generated by governmental injunctions to “stay at home” generated by governmental injunctions to “stay at home” as a defence strategy against the “war” on the current pandemic.’ Read more here.