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Tote Bäume (Dead Trees)
A Film by Annina Boogen, Nina Calderone, Michael Etzensperger
2022, HD, Color, Stereo, 13:58min, german language
Voice: Anna Schinz
Music: ewige geraete

Synopsis:
Unlike in most of the woodland of central Europe, in the Swiss National Park trees are left lying on the ground to rot away over decades. Since the park’s inception, this has been a hobby horse, a sign of unspoiled nature where humans have not intervened. The trees provide nourishment too for a fungus that is more than a thousand years old and has spread out over several hundred square metres. We roam the forest in search of the largest and oldest living creature in Europe and find instead an image. An image that reveals only traces but no protagonists. An image whose origin eludes us: Did we bring it with us, or has it always been there? An image that corresponds to our ideas but still seems strange when we stand before it.

Annina Boogen, born 1986 in Zurich, Switzerland, is an environmental economist (PhD ETH Zurich) and an artistic researcher working with sound (MA in Transdisciplinary Studies, ZHdK). In her research-based practice, she is interested in social science issues, which she brings to negotiation and reflection through aesthetic strategies

Nina Calderone, born in 1989 is a freelance filmmaker and visual designer. In 2014 she graduated with a BA in Animation from the HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts). 2021 MA in Transdiciplinarity from the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts). She is part of the Zurich-based illustration and animation collective Klub Galopp. She lives and works in Zurich.

Michael Etzensperger, born in 1982 in Winterthur, Switzerland, holds a degree from ZHdK (BA in Art and Media, focus Photography) and a MFA (Institut Kunst, FHNW Basel) in fine Arts. He has participated in various group and solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. Michael Etzenspergers filmic work is usually non narrative with a strong tendency into abstraction.