The Taste of the Past
Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Siegfried Mattl's Death

Ten years ago, in April 2015, the death of Siegfried Mattl marked not only the passing of one of Austria's most imaginative and influential contemporary historians, but also a longtime friend and partner of the Film Museum.

 

"Siegi" Mattl's extensive interests ranged from progressive politics to questions of artificial intelligence. Urban and media history and the art of film and cinema were important features of his scholarly work and formed the basis of a still lively and internationally renowned "Viennese School" of visual history and cultural studies, which found its home in the productive no man's land between the university, non-academic research, the museum, and artistic creation. Siegfried Mattl's curiosity, wit, and phantasy have been lasting inspirations for the Film Museum's collecting and cataloguing work and generated many publications and research and exhibition projects.

 

For this event, we invite Siegi Mattl's friends and companions to explore the field of visual history through film documents, archival finds, flotsam and jetsam, and the residue of history: a glimpse into both the Film Museum's and other collections' open storage gallery and the workshop of ideas. An evening sure to be full of unforgettable, fleeting, surprising, and sometimes puzzling images. (Michael Loebenstein / Translation: Ted Fendt)