It's There

From Viennale

Friedl vom Gröller’s films are brief but dense, each image operating like a line in a visual poem. Her latest is organised around stanzas by Jelena Arrouas, the subject of vom Gröller’s 2024 film JELENA. ES IST DA is bookended by images of Arrouas, while the middle portion of the film consists of a series of doors, some open and some closed. These passages reflect the subject of Arrouas’s poem, which we read on handwritten placards. ES IST DA concludes in an open-air marketplace, implying a movement from past into present. (Michael Sicinski)