Test 1

Gottfried Bechtold

Test 1, 1971

Artwork text

In the midst of a barren landscape of towering trees, Bechtold appears on the horizon from behind a tree trunk. Slowly, he approaches the camera and thus the viewer. The fixed position and setting of the camera mean that the frame remains constant. This causes the artist’s body to grow larger as he approaches, as if cut to size. When he has arrived at the closest point, only his upper body remains in the picture. In his right hand, Bechtold holds a hammer, with which he taps enquiringly around the edges of the monitor screen, and thus the edges of the frame, thereby questioning the limited nature of this excerpt of reality. The video ends by returning to the first shot. (Doris Leutgeb)