will have been

The film is a poetic ramble through the apartment of Heinz Frank, Viennese artist and architect, who transformed his apartment into a work of art during his lifetime. His daughter Lilli Breuer has been fighting for the preservation of this little treasure since his death. (production note)

Even before the image lets us in, via black film we get a few crucial clues about the property from a dialogue between two women. The apartment of the Viennese artist and architect Heinz Frank (1939–2020), which is then traversed bit by bit in grainy, color-intensive 16mm recordings, is one of a kind: in the entrance area there is a free-standing enamel bathtub; behind curtains, all of the rooms open up. The eye is quickly drawn to details: corners, edges, fittings, hatches – and reddish-brown lacquer paintwork with wood grain.  

The pattern roller as the solution to this riddle is shown to us immediately afterwards. The height of the color applied was tailored to match the height of the resident; his daughter, Lilli Breuer-Guttmann, continues to tell the filmmaker in the voiceover that the apartment was his “third skin”. It turns out to be correspondingly adaptable: walls can be moved laterally or set at an angle, ample work surfaces can be folded out along the window side, and a staircase made of stacked cubes leads upstairs to a storage area. In built-in cupboards and drawers, everyday objects, artistic works, and ornaments await.  

The interest in and the sense for the enigmatic, the ambiguous, the multifaceted, for surprising views and hidden functions run through the cinematic architectural studies that Sasha Pirker has been producing for around fifteen years. Things are not only shown, but literally grasped. Pirker’s most recent film is also characterized by its dramaturgical clarity – gewesen sein wird / will have been works as a cheerful tour through this apartment, as an insight into an artistic practice and into a daughter-father relationship. For nearly seventeen minutes we hear, we see, and then we understand something about how everything here is connected. Here is a film that is self-explanatory in the best sense of the word. (Isabella Reicher)

Translation: John Wojtowicz

More Texts

gewesen sein wird pesaro 23 (Award)

For allowing the viewers to access a special space that is at the same time a house and a work of art, and for presenting a light, sensitive and honest portrait of an artist that never appears, the first Special Mention of the Jury goes to GEWESEN SEIN WIRD by Sasha Pirker. (Jury Statment, Pesaro Film Festival 2023)

Orig. Title
gewesen sein wird
Year
2022
Country
Austria
Duration
17 min 30 sec
Director
Sasha Pirker
Category
Experimental, Documentary
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Credits
Director
Sasha Pirker
Cinematography
Ortrun Bauer
Camera Assistant
Judith Augustinovic
Editing
Sasha Pirker
Sound Design
Stefan Németh
Dramaturgical Advisor
Dariusz Kowalski
Sound Mastering
Andreas Pils
Colour Correction
Kurt Hennrich
Translation
Janet Grau
Supported by
Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport / Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport
with
Lilli Breuer-Guttmann
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,33
Sound Format
Dolby 5.1.
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2022
Viennale - Vienna Int. Film Festival
2023
Pesaro - Film Festival (Jury Special mention)
Shkodra - Idromeno Independent Film Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Chicoutimi/Saguenay - REGARD sur le court métrage
Oberhausen - Int. Kurzfilmtage
2024
Madrid - Filmadrid