I escaped from this into the cinema, where colour was better than the real thing

0.0 2026 | 3 min

Viktoria Schmid’s 16mm film installation I escaped from this into the cinema, ... (2018-2026) is based on James Clerk Maxwell’s method of additive colour mixing, which led to the first colour photograph in 1861. Footage of water features from different parts of the world, shot over a period of several years, merge into a new work using a trichromatic projection technique. At each location, three shots were taken on black-and-white film, each through a filter of a different colour (Red / Green / Blue). By projecting the images with three projectors through the corresponding filters, and by adding extra screens, they manifest themselves in varying degrees of overlap to form a final colour image. The projection ‘dispositive’ makes the relationship between colour and time tangible. Panta rhei — everything flows.