Museum depots are places where things are kept out of sight, but also protected from all-too-schematic historical judgments. In his new film, Assaf Gruber continues his ongoing investigation of the backstage areas of art institutions to engage with Neue Galerie Graz’s holdings.

In the cage-like space of the repository, we see a naked musician working intensely on a composition. He is inspired by artists whose past belongs to a gray area between modernist aspirations and enthusiasm for Nazism, and whose works combine a taste for the exotic with local patriotism, religious fervor, and eroticism.

Our mysterious protagonist tentatively plays a familiar melody. It’s a song known to many of us, recognizable from dance floors across Europe—but how many of us have ever bothered to listen to its remarkably racist and imperialist lyrics?

Written and directed by Assaf Gruber
Actor and musician: Rudi Katholnig  
Line production: Eyal Vexler
Cinematography: Simon Veroneg
Editing: Janina Herhoffer and Assaf Gruber

Link

https://2022.steirischerherbst.at/en/program/artists/3649/assaf-gruber