minus20degree 2014
m20d14 opened with a continuation of the snow screen format, expanded into a performative setting combining film screening and theatre. Local residents and amateur actors were involved, extending the festival into the village context.
The opening night of m20d14 presented a curated program of short films projected onto a surface made of snow and ice, now extended into a performative setting involving a theatre component with participation from local residents and Laiendarsteller*innen. Featuring works by artists from Australia, Costa Rica, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and Austria, the selection continued the festival’s early focus on film in a winter context. The snow-and-ice surface produced a subtly diffused image, shaped by the material properties of the projection site.
The second night shifted from screen to site. Dante’s Inferno, the first part of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, was reinterpreted as a walk-through performance set within an alpine winter forest. Conceived as a theatre piece without a fixed stage, the audience assumed the central, dynamic role. Guided by Virgil, visitors moved from scene to scene—encountering contemporary figures of damnation embedded within the landscape. Natural and technical elements alike were repurposed as scenography: trees became restraints, drainage pipes resonant instruments, and rock formations defensive structures. Over the course of approximately one hour, the forest was transformed into a shifting environment—an immersive sequence of encounters that reframed the familiar terrain as a space of psychological and cultural reflection.