Square There, Hold it

PLATZ DA, HALT – difficult to translate due to multiplicity of meaning. As an imperative it addresses itself to the people (in the film), the passers-by in an ambivalent fashion: "Go away (,make room’), stop (stay)!". As a declamation about the space which the film explores, the title asks: "Square (as a public gathering space etc.) here?, (or just a tram-) stop?". Then the title's meaning becomes a general question about space (in a city, in a country), whom it belongs to, who it is open and available to, and if and how it is possible to get some "hold", some grip in (and of) a place.

The film itself is an orchestration of a space, made with the strong believe, that in art politics has to start with a politics of the eyes (senses), by offering an experience which allows to freely use and explore them. (T.K. 1993)

A perceptual exploration of "open", urban space and its boundaries and limitations, exemplified by a functional piece of Vienna trying but not quite succeeding to be a square – a public gathering space for an exchange of goods and feelings. A quest for balance between openness and enclosedness (– the pleasures of being lost in a city), distance and contact, movement and stillness, observation and participation. To make visible the sometimes hidden energies that move us, through (counter)movements – of the camera/eye and consequently of the mind. Always with a consciousness of the boundaries of film, the limitations of the frame etc. (T.K. 1994)