Iris Blauensteiner: Atemhaut

In the organizer's words:

What is man still worth when machines take over his work? Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Edin is unexpectedly made redundant and a multi-sensory trip through imaginary worlds begins. Will he find himself in the here and now?

"You see forks, countless paths that lead away from you, you see that parallel possibilities exist within you. The future is always somewhere else."

Edin can no longer breathe. After he loses his job at a logistics company, he ends up in a state of disorientation. He is ashamed of this stroke of fate in front of his girlfriend Vanessa and flees further and further into imaginary worlds. The impressions of his present - the turn of the millennium is just around the corner - lob like grenades into his emotional universe, awakening memories of his experiences in the Yugoslavian war. Only in computer games is Edin the first-person shooter hero who has everything under control. But will he also reach the next level in everyday life, which overwhelms him like a noisy background noise?

With her second novel "Atemhaut", for which sound artist Rojin Sharafi has composed a fitting soundtrack, Iris Blauensteiner has created a sensitive and deeply poetic portrait of a young man who has to redefine his identity in a world full of automation processes. What is he still worth as a human being when his performance is no longer needed?

Iris Blauensteiner, born 1986 in Vienna. Author and filmmaker. Degrees in fine arts and theater, film and media studies. Starting scholarship for literature from bmkös 2021, prize in the screenplay competition If she can see it, she can be it from Drehbuchforum Wien 2019, award at the Alternative Film/Video Festival Belgrade 2018, Förderungspreis für Literatur der Stadt Wien 2018, Pixel, Bytes & Film - Artist-in-Residence ORF III & Arte Creative 2017 and residency scholarship at Literarisches Colloquium Berlin 2017. The novel Kopfzecke was published by Kremayr & Scheriau in 2016

Moderation: Arnold Maxwill