Dietmar Brehm

Dietmar Brehm has made videos and draws and paints, and since 2007 he has developed 141 scenes within his PRAXIS series, a composite work that Brehm intends to continue. On the one hand, he sees the PRAXIS series as a way to explore his own earlier films and to “develop new dramaturgies of image and sound by means of electronic image transformation” (Brehm). On the other hand, Brehm works over his new film material taken with a digital video camera by distorting and denaturalizing it. Garish colors, flickering effects, and out-of-focus shots, ghostly self-portraits, reversals of positive and negative, and absurd seeming sequences—all mysterious scenarios of defamiliarization.

Film program

Dietmar Brehm, PRAXIS Selektion, 2007–2015, 88 min
Szene 4: 1000 Blitze / 11: Himmel / 13: Übung / 14: Schwarzensee / 18: Basis pH / 20: Peng Peng / 23: Immer / 24: Vollmond / 28: Absolut / 47: Berlin / 49: Paris / 50: Gebüsch / 51: Chesterfield / 54: Charles / 55: Röntgen / 56: Schwarzensee / 57: Rechnung / 58: Bonbon / 59: Jayne. 60: Personal / 67: Huh Huh Huh / 68: Hallo Hallo / 72: Waxenbergwald / 76: Mittag / 84: Hello Dan Graham / 87: Hose / 94: Express / 96: Chesterfield / 102: Alter Ego / 103: Licht / 110: Insch / 112: Sonne Halt / 113: Cocktail / 114: Hallo Mabuse /120: Turaluralu / 130: Rolle / 131: Oxford / 137: Vollmond / 138: Nanu / 141: Coke.

Presented by Dietmar Brehm and Brigitta Burger-Utzer

Dietmar Brehm was born in 1947 in Linz and studied painting there. From 1972 to 2012 he was professor of nude drawing at the University of Art and Design Linz. Since 1962 he has produced drawings, since 1968 prints, since 1974 super 8 films, since 1976 photos, since 1984 paintings on canvas, since 1990 16mm films, and since 2006 videos. Solo presentations at the New Gallery of the City of Linz, at the Upper Austrian State Museum, at Künstlerhaus Wien, the Austrian Film Museum, and Galerie Faber. Numerous prizes and awards, including the Austrian Appreciation  Prize for Film Art, the Upper Austrian State Culture Prize for Experimental Film, and festival prizes in Madrid, Austin (Texas), Brussels, and Iowa City (USA).

Brigitta Burger-Utzer lives in Vienna. Co-founder of sixpackfilm, and managing director since 1992.