Catalogue > At random

A unique blend of Bauhaus and Art Déco, the marvellous Villa Empain has had many different lives since it opened in 1934. A story of survival. ____ VILLA EMPAIN draws a mental map of a space, as it goes through time. Concrete marble, brick and steel: little else made by human hands seems as stable, as immutable, as a building. Yet the life of any structure is neither fixed nor timeless. Outliving their original contexts and purposes, buildings are forced to adapt to each succeeding age. To survive, they must become shapeshifters. VILLA EMPAIN compares the life of Louis Empain and his creation. It bears witness to how a fixed idea, an architect’s dream, has disappeared in favour of a living architecture. The work is activated.

Katharina Kastner is an Austrian filmmaker working in Vienna and Brussels. She studied directing at TISCH School of the Arts in NYC and LUCA, Brussels. Her experimental short film about a museum of contemporary art, VILLA EMPAIN, builds upon the concept of psychogeography and draws a mental map of a space as it goes through time. Katharina Kastner’s films combine documentary, essayistic and experimental elements. She is interested in fragile environments and the people behind these, using the camera to explore inner and outer transformations. Time and memory are recurring themes in her work.