Optimistic Cover, 2015, begins with a lengthy take of a dog on a broad beach shrouded in fog. To start with the dog is seen sitting, for a moment looking with waving ears directly into the camera before starting to run. In slow-motion he moves continuously away from a position close to the camera, but cuts brings him back into the picture each time and his relaxed run seems to be continued indefinitely. The scene is determined by a likewise recurrent optimistic piano melody. While the music carries on almost unchanged, the next take is introduced abruptly. Against a dark background, various objects that are difficult to clearly identify, such a a pink quilted jacket and a colourful round tablecloth, are put together to form a flat collage on to which parallel film excerpts are projected. In a small pane top right the dog on the beach can still be seen, while at the same time at least five other different takes can be recognized. Two panes are dominated by costumed figures. One is marching along a forest path with a folksy tablecloth over its head. The second can be observed dressed in the pink quilted jacket and wearing an ass’s head plastic mask as, with nimble fingers, it fastens a colourful cloth printed with comic animals to a no less colourfully painted wall. Individual scenes of the film collage, whose elements become increasingly smaller and overlaid, are zoomed in on alternately and for a brief moment detached from the whole. With the focus on the marching figure, the music too finally changes into a dramatic drumming. Individual excerpts are now played faster and faster while contrasted with garish coloured light, and shown as anticipation and retrospect of the main collage. Scenes that ultimately slow down again show various views of sometimes picturesquely composed walls in cities. As the bearers of information in the public space, Optimistic Cover stresses their communicative potential and parallel structures of reality and fiction.
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