Patterns of the Conquerors

2017

Shortfilm
length: 21 Minutes
Format: DCP

Production: Sascha Reichstein
CAMERA: Martin Putz
CUTTING: Sascha Reichstein
POSTPRODUCTION Image: Klaus Pamminger
POSTPRODUCTION Sound: Nils Kirchhoff
INTERVIEWPARTNER: Dr.in Sonja Ashmore, 
Dr. Felix Driver, Shaheen Merali

PATTERNS OF THE CONQUERERS deals on one hand with the visual appealingness of the manifold, inspiring textiles of the Albums of the Textile Manufactures of India (from 1860) and on the other hand it conducts us to a world behind the surface of these textiles, which rests concealed on a visual level. On the acoustic level three variant voices are speaking about their particular experiences and their gaze, as well as the historic relevance regarding these albums. We see fragments of writing, of weathered and faded materiality and the cut up textiles, which where applied with glue and labelled with their size and place of origin.

We listen alternately to three different voices, narrating in fragments the history and significance of these albums. In the course of the film, the context of the albums puts itself piece by piece together but ultimately to remain us untold. The visual as well as acoustic settings of the film are representing material for a never to complete puzzle. Similar to a voyage of discovery, we experience many about the collection of patterns, techniques and the appropriation of traditionally formed appearances. The fragmentality of the textiles and the informations about them leaves us realizing at the end that the truth about the world is fragmented, frangible and contradictory at once.