FORÊT D'EXPÉRIMENTATION – the experimental forest, the name of a place, a title, and a statement of intent. The first step into this forest is represented as a black-and-white silhouette, branches against a background of clouds moving rapidly across the sky, with a modulating soundtrack that records and further develops nature's sounds. A picture, whose aesthetic excess takes up well-known references to landscape paintings and photography, as well as genre cinema. But as soon as one penetrates deeper into the forest, the visual and tonal register changes, the view moves ever closer to the landscape's pre-civilizational elements; vegetation, water, and wildlife. Attention turns to details, rhythm; to subtle and also surprising changes and movements. Nature's enigmatic aspect moves to the forefront and the viewer is captivated by formal beauty, by pictures, which must first be decoded in their visual alienation and play of various size relations. The borders between nature and landscape, handed down forms of representation and playful experiment, the abstract and figurative are dealt with in the mode of a fascinating and simultaneously exploratory awareness. The processing of well-known visual and tonal alphabets produces an entirely unique, idiosyncratic cinematic experience. The view remains in motion, there is constantly something new to see, hear, and discover. In the end, the circle closes with a sight that could again be taken from a classical painting or a feature film. Different levels of awareness overlap, penetrate, and influence one another. The experiment is in the search for a form of depiction, and also the view—from the landscape to nature and back again. (Barbara Pichler)