Key West is located near the southern tip of Florida, not far from Key Largo. In contrast to Key Largo (John Huston, USA, 1948), Key West has no need of gangsters to reveal this paradise on earth to be an illusion. Looking back from a distance of nearly 50 years, it is sufficient to reconnect those images which -- each in itself -- represented a longing view of this paradise: images of boat-like cars sailing down the highway, of bikini-clad girls on the beach, of surfers riding the waves. A moral lesson? Possibly.
But a different question poses itself first: Why is it that these images still arouse such a great deal of fascination when the majority have succumbed to sound reasoning long ago? Why does such an image of longing, reduced in potency but still effective, appear among strategies of alienation -- the overlapping and shuffling of various images, their partial obstruction by palm trees passing in the foreground, the intrusion of mechanical sounds into the harmonies of the genre music? Precisely what do images of driving, the beach and surfing under Florda's sun have to do with a promise of freedom? According to Walter Benjamin, it is the fact that this promise has never been fulfilled. These images return as fragments in a dream which --assuming it has not yet become reality -- quite closely resembles a trauma. In this sense, Key West makes clear the price which must be paid for dreams founded upon images.
1972 in Vienna, Master Class for Graphic-Design at the HGBLVA, Vienna. Since 1990, he has been working under the name of AUGE illustrator, cartoonist and producer of animation films - also for the internet (Flash movies).
Selected Videography:
Justus in Aroma 1995
Attack of the Mutant Monster Mole Men 1996
25€“ ein Viertel bitte! 1997
26 Models and a Splitscreen 1998
Sophia's Sofa 2001
Bomb! 2002
Key West 2002
Haiku Who? 2003
established 2003
Masse(s) 2004
amovie@earthlink.net
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