Der gestohlene Brief

A bowl on the ground. The fallen leaves around it reference autumn. A letter enters the frame—aged hands tear it up, and its pieces fall into the bowl, not unlike leaves. Later, these pieces are burned amidst the darkness. The traces of a love story now over? Yet upon reading the title, one wonders about the theft, why it took place and the sort of thief who would place the torn pieces of a stolen letter so delicately into a glass bowl.... As so often with vom Gröller’s work, it’s about paying heed to details, speculating: an uncertainty that is uniquely sensuous and perfectly cinematic. (Salvador Amores, Viennale 2023)