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One Pope after the other - A video installation by Christoph Burtscher (photography) and Gato
Leiras (sound)

In the summer of 1978, when three popes - Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II - succeeded each other, Christoph Burtscher as a 12-year-old boy, fascinated by these ecclesiastic ceremonies, placed his camera in front of the television and brought the events to a standstill by pressing the release of his camera. Parallel to that he tape-recorded live reports and news (of the Austrian broadcasting ORF), some of which can be found in the present work.

Some decades later the rediscovered pictures are full of streaks and dropouts and the colours are fading. The flow of time creates a space that allows for a more distanced approach to the staging of religious mass events.

Especially composed music by Gato Leiras, which follows the sound of a Love Parade, provides the background to the photographs in the video. The sound remains free from the message (history, language) and is just a melody in itself without past or future.

Christoph Burtscher