Nachtfahrt

Between 1975 and 1989, the Swiss film and video pioneer Roman Signer made 175 Super 8 films of short actions, in which he has various objects catapulted, exploded, collapsed or sunk, in endless amusing variations. Signer calls these actions ‘Kurzzeitskulptur’ or ‘Dynamische Erscheinungen’. The seriousness and precision with which each work is carried out lends his oeuvre a sense of urgency. His recent videos are somewhat less hilarious and reflect on what it means to be an artist, for example. One example of this is the video-Piaggio Nachtfahrt from 1999. A film projection on the back of the van shows a night-time journey from St. Gallen, where the artist lives, to the mountains near Appenzell, where Signer recorded his first Super 8 films in 1975.