TOUR (single—channel video, 2012) With the beginning of the 16th Century the so—called Grand Tour marks a routing of the young, wealthy, upper—class English who access significant sites on the European continent. This route is intended for the young travelers to discover picturesque sceneries and landscape formations — mood—boards so to say. This measuring of the picturesque, expressed by often long lasting travel, marks the beginning of the attempt to capture impressions on landscape through simple optical devices as the camera obscura, or by the use of color filters as the Claude—glasses. At the same time the Grand Tour stands for the longing an atmosphere of the voyage itself.
With their third short film Tour Markus Hanakam and Roswitha Schuller round a row of work dealing with the generating of a modern view, that is directed by mechanical/optical devices. They go on with the formal conception of putting scenery, object and actor an a same equal level, accompanied by a male voice over. The text level of Tour is based on fragments of William Gilpins 1798 essay: “Observations on the western parts of England, relative chiefly to picturesque beauty; to which are added, a few remarks on the picturesque beauties of the Isle of Wight”.
Markus Hanakam (b. 1979 in Essen) — a German visual artist. After studying two years at the University Essen (Faculty for Art and Design, 2000—2002), he moved to Vienna, Austria, where he graduated at the University of Applied Arts in 2006 with a Master degree in Art Education and Master degree in Sculpture and Multimedia (2009).
Roswitha Schuller (b. 1984 in Friesach) — an Austrian visual artist. She studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (2002—2007) and graduated with a Master degree in Art Education and Master degree in Sculpture and Multimedia (2009). In years 2008—2012, a Ph.D. student at the University of Applied Arts (she received a Doctoral Degree for her thesis “Happy Ending Nature. The role of the Arcadian in sociocultural space”).
Since 2004 they work collaboratively as duo ‘Hanakam & Schuller’ and their work is shown at museums and festivals in an international context, including Rencontres Internationales 2012 at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, ISEA 2011, Istanbul, 4th Moscow International Biennale for Contemporary Art, 2011. For their work they gained several awards like the MAK Schindler Fellowship in Los Angeles, as well as an Artist in Residency at the Citè International des Art, Paris. Their short Film “INVASION” was awarded as Jury Selection Work at Japan Media Arts Festival 2012.
