Crisis

First we see a peaceful scene on a beach, with a city in the background – but almost immediately, the view opens up onto a structure of differentiation. The seaside bathing scene shifts and its centerline becomes the boundary of a mirror image: here black/white, there white/black, over here positive and over there negative, one side familiar and the other side foreign. These categories correspond to well-known social and ideological constructions. In his minimalist animated film, Leopold Maurer draws attention to the fact that, despite existing notions, the people on both sides behave in very similar ways.

A wave...