The Anthropocene is compelling us to re-evaluate our perception of time. It forces us to confront the inexorable march of climate change, which is systematically reshaping the very fabric of our cities and landscapes. In stark contrast to this relentless transformation, Eric Leiser’s “Pinnacles” emerges as a contemplative work, a minimal yet monumental film dedicated to the timeless vastness of Pinnacles National Park in California. Created by the cataclysmic eruptions of volcanoes nearly 23 million years ago, this awe-inspiring landscape has spanned geological epochs and the passage of countless generations of humans and animals, the most well-known residents being the Chalon and Mutsun Native American tribes and the California condor. The film captures the stoic presence of towering rock formations in grainy images of severe instability, creating a cinematic poem about the silent witnesses to our planet’s evolution.

Eric Leiser *1981, lives and works in New York, USA

Phantom Horizons

The on-going screening series Phantom Horizons presents digital as well as analogue works that question the paradigm of linear perspective, seeking a new kind of “status perspective” [Bedeutungsperspektive]. The latter was a development of ancient and medieval painting, in which the size of figures is determined by their hierarchical significance. Extending this approach using the methodology of deconstruction and the possibilities of contemporary film creation, the presented works open up multifaceted, unseen horizons.

Curated by Robert Seidel