Prater

The oldest amusement park in the world is reflected in the technical and media developments of filmmaking – visualized kaleidoscopically by way of flying camera movements set to texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner, and Elias Canetti. Within the world of illusion, which connects the Ferris wheel to modern attractions, which shoot visitors into space from an ejection seat, there are moments of intimacy: While young people test their strength at the “Watschenmann” attraction, a woman dances and forgets everything around her. Cinema, a place of contemplation, began as a fairground attraction. The history of Vienna’s Prater theme park and the work of Ulrike Ottinger have something in common: The world becomes a stage and the stage the world. (Milena Gregor)