Bright lights and blazing flames—Don Ritter works with sound & video projections screened right on the exterior wall of the old post office at Linz’s main train station right across from the entrance to POSTCITY. The imposing projections consist of multiple recordings of fire that are mixed and manipulated in real time during playback. The colors change slowly but steadily, while the sound of the fire is interactively controlled by the visual activity of the projection. Don Ritter’s Burning Too plays with the symbolic power of fire. In bygone days, primary focus was on fire’s specific benefits, but nowadays fire evokes feelings like fear or romanticism. The selection of the façade was by no means a matter of chance. This structure was built during the postwar era on the basis of plans by Hitler’s architect Speer. Thus, in the historical context of this place and its past, it can also serve as a monument that commemorates and admonishes.
Design and programming, video and sound editing: Don Ritter
Production coordinator: Cleo Song
Raw video footage: Mitch Martninez
Produced with financial assistance from City University of Hong Kong, grant no. 9380072.
