Deposit
Master Class for Animation Film at the University of Applied Arts
In 1982, Austrian animation film was redefined by the country's first teaching studio for animation film: Maria Lassnig's master class at the University of Applied Arts, founded by the artist herself. Hubert Sielecki was commissioned to set up this studio for experimental animation. He subsequently took over from Maria Lassnig, leading the studio and teaching there until his retirement in 2012. Maria Lassnig encouraged and actively supported the production of animated shorts strongly influenced by painting and fine arts. The studio continues to function and promote this tradition to this day, now under the direction of Christian Ludwig Attersee, who took over from Hubert Sielecki in 1992.
Between 1983 and 2000, most of the films produced in the class were made on 16mm analog film stock. The depot entrusted to the Film Museum includes a large number of these films. The collection consists of 137 different titles, most of them color sound films, made by more than 40 filmmakers such as Mara Mattuschka, Bady Minck, Martin Anibas, Sabine Groschup, James Clay, Lisi Frischengruber, and Roland Schütz. Many of the films have been shown at various international film festivals and won numerous awards.
The films provide a broad overview of the style and understanding of film developed in the studio. What distinguishes these experimental films is the emphasis they place on their materiality, foregrounding abstract forms, physicality, sexuality, everyday life, and social boundaries. The films are usually between one and five minutes in length, shot on color negative with a magnetic strip soundtrack, which was added later. The colors on some of the material are faded, largely due to the film stock, Eastman Color Print (LPP). Some of the black and white prints are affected by silver mirroring. (Vanessa Scharrer)
