HEIMAT

It would seem to be a smart idea to remain as sober as possible when dealing with an exceedingly pregnant term such as Heimat ("home, homeland, native country"). The etymology offered by the dictionary tells us that Heimat comes from Heim ("home, place where one settles") and has the same Indo-Germanic root as Heirat ("marriage," or historically "acquisition of a home") and geheuer ("accustomed, belonging to a household"). In a reference to the origins of its subject, Peter Grammer´s video comprises a 360° pan of a forest which has been altered in many ways, the angrammatic permutations of the word Heimat and its arrangement in six stanzas.

In a film, as is well known, the image is "married" to the sound. In HEIMAT, this process is accompanied by a metronome which provides orientation. It would seem that the rhythmic structure indicates how many layers of images and combinations of letters are superimposed and in what way. The result is that the juxtaposition of forest and word is somewhat unaccustomed, to say the least. Though certain extended segments of this video seem to resemble a song played on a hurdy-gurdy or an incantation, its intention is quite different. As the credits betray (typewritten letters shown from the paper´s point of view spell out the word Heimat, which explains the reversed E), this is the deconstruction of the inscription, the deconstruction of the point of view from which one observes and states: What is produced on the screen is a jerkily animated reflection.

(Vrääth Öhner)