unort
UNORT (“Non-existence”)
“PSEUDO” DOCUMENTARY. Color
Fascinated by religion and religious buildings, I choose to document two different places of worship: the Franziskanerhaus in Dulliken, built by the architect Otto Glaus between 1966-1969 and the Catholic church, St. Peter and Paul in Bern, consecrated in 1864 and designed by a young architect. Edouard Deperthes.
With the decline of religious beliefs and decreased use, therefore, of religious houses of worship, we can find more and more empty and abandoned buildings. Nuns and priests are dying out and it is hard for the church to find a new following. People previously relied on religion for a sense of security, community, and refuge. I would like to counter that with confusion. To me religion is a promised falsehood that represents something that doesn’t exist.
I have documented both places, as they are one and the same building. My intention is to disorient and disturb the viewer and to show alienation by filming an unidentified place. A place of non-existence; i.e. an “Unort”. The filming of both buildings is fragmented and consciously abstract to give the illusion of an invented and fictional place.
The lack of people have underscored that it is indeed an insecure, mystified, and lonely place in this world. The brutalistic and modern building stays in stark contrast with the neo-gothic architecture and therefore was a good place to present irritation and desolation.