Tasks (Chieftain), 2019

Single channel video, aspect ratio 16:9, 4 mins 55 sec, UHD, stereo sound

An overhead view of a large industrial machine surrounded by a snowed in landscape. Six figures emerge and commence their tasks: digging, clearing, shifting, shovelling.

Filmed as a continuous single shot the image presents the environment like a temporary stage upon which the protagonists act. The question arises, whether their activities are purposeful, useful, whether this is their everyday working reality or a set up.

Tasks (Chieftain) was filmed with six volunteers who are all employees of the mountain railways in Montafon, yet the tasks we see are neither their job – nor anyone else’s for that matter. The work was conceived as a response to the forces of entropy acting upon a given space. Intense snowfall over a period of two weeks necessitated a set of tasks to be carried out. Over and again, relentlessly.