Monroc

"Lost Destinations" is the name of a Web site dedicated to obscure locations in the USA. "Abandoned, unusual, wild and weird road trip photography and beyond" is presented for the viewer's pleasure, including illustrations of an abandoned concrete and building-material factory in Idaho Falls (the "Monroc Facility"), which is the starting point for Michaela Grill's video of the same name. A still image of the picturesque industrial ruin appears repeatedly throughout the half-hour work like a refrain, its stanzas comprising three independent abstract studies. The soundtrack by Martin Siewert underlines the suite's synesthetic character, by casting acoustic shadows in places where the video image builds on musical parameters such as rhythm, timbre and tonality. When the color and brightness of individual images are modulated in the reprise, the three episodes independently sample a range of more abstract visual characteristics. Power chords brace themselves against the final disintegration of the images. In the end Monroc comes to a lyrical, even gentle conclusion with the reappearing still.
(Christian Höller)