| 09.05.2026 | 19:30 |
Curated by Bori Máté (FWF-ESPRIT Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
Organized in collaboration with Markus Maicher (filmkoop wien)
Matter in Place II (Cosma Grosser)
This screening is part of the postdoctoral research project Elemental Alchemy in Experimental Cinema. The 60-minute program brings together photochemical films that open pathways to alchemical and cosmic imagination by mobilizing elemental forces. Moving between abstract and more figurative states, the works mirror primordial conditions of matter and life as they gradually take form.
The screening will be preceded by a short introduction and brief contextual remarks on the films and artists, and followed by a Q&A session with invited guests.
Filmmakers Cosma Grosser, Markus Maicher and Stefanie Weberhofer will be present, with Lallita Bliss (a.k.a. Cherry Kino) joining online.
Selected works will be accompanied by a live musical performance by members of the Punctum Collective:
Evgeny Ignashev (electronics), Eirini Krikoni (violin), and Jake Mann (clarinet, bass clarinet).
Dissolved (Aufgelöst) (Stefanie Weberhofer, 2015, 4:00)
A Study in Natural Magic (Charlotte Pryce, 2013, 3:00, 16 mm)
Das Schöpfwerk (Jürgen Reble, 2013, 11:00)
TLECAXITL (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, 2021, 9:13)
Lunar Almanach (Malena Szlam, 2013, 4:00, 16 mm)
Ultima/Prélude (Giulia Grossmann, 2025, 13:30)
Salt (Cherry Kino, 2013, 7:48)
Wasteland No. 3: Moons, Sons (Jodie Mack, 2021, 5:00)
BLÄTTER IM HERBST (Leaves in Autumn) (Markus Maicher, 2018, 4:01, 16 mm)
Matter in Place II (Cosma Grosser, 2023, 2:13)
BLÄTTER IM HERBST (Markus Maicher) / Wasteland No. 3: Moons, Sons (Jodie Mack) / Dissolved (Stefanie Weberhofer) / TLECAXITL (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos)
About the research
Elemental Alchemy in Experimental Cinema is a cross-disciplinary research project exploring how experimental and documentary film practices engage with elemental media, expanding cinema’s relationship to nature, deep time, and transformation.
Building on prior work on eco-trauma and human–nature entanglements, the project investigates how film can evoke temporalities, spatialities, and material processes that exceed conventional representation. It proposes an expanded understanding of cinematic materiality approaching film not only as a medium of representation, but as an elemental process in itself.
Drawing on elemental media philosophy, new materialism, and posthuman phenomenology, the research examines how the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—operate not merely as themes, but as active agents within filmmaking and mediation. Incorporating alchemical perspectives, it further considers how elemental forces shape perception and cinematic experience.
Through the analysis of contemporary experimental film practices, the project suggests that such works cultivate a mode of perception that may be described as elemental thinking.
Curator’s bio
Bori Máté is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she also received her doctoral degree. Her work explores experimental cinema, ecological thought, and embodied spectatorship, with a particular focus on elemental media, affect, and human–nonhuman relations, including eco-trauma. Her current research project, Elemental Alchemy in Experimental Cinema, investigates the intersection of film materiality, alchemical thinking, and environmental imagination.
Saturday, May 9, 2026 | 19:30 (doors) | 20:00 (screening)
filmkoop wien
Komödiengasse 8
1020 Wien
admission: free donation
The event is part of our annual program and is sponsored by the City of Vienna’s Department of Culture (MA7), the BMWKMS and the district of Leopoldstadt.
