Dedications, Peter Liechti’s last film, was to be dedicated to art, literature, and — in honor of humanity — to a nameless chief from southern Sudan. Critically ill, the filmmaker radically abridged what was originally planned as a trilogy and modified the focus:
“A filmic essay full of ruptures and gaps — surprising and raw, like life itself. Past and present, memory and illness, blend into a heady stream of images and sounds that are more dream than reality. . . full of unbridled life and the melancholy of oblivion.”
Peter Liechti about Dedications
In collaboration with some of the filmmaker’s closest colleagues, Liechti’s partner, Jolanda Gsponer, has created a multimedia project in three parts to pass the unfinished Dedications on to posterity. Peter Liechti’s unvarnished encounter with his own life and death has become a posthumous homage to the artist in the form of an installation, a filmed reading, and a book.
DEDICATIONS – THE INSTALLATION
A filmic installation lies at the heart of the three-part concept. Conceived by artist Yves Netzhammer, it gives shape to the content of Dedications and to a project under construction, without manipulating its authorship. Three semitransparent screens are each devoted to a theme: “Walks and Dreams,” Hospital,” and “Archive/Time Journey.” Visual and acoustic notations are associatively superimposed, allowing for a complex web of references, which enables viewers to join in the montage, as it were.
Original material, visuals, sound: Peter Liechti
Concept: Yves Netzhammer
Compilation of visuals: Jolanda Gsponer, Annette Brütsch
Sound: Norbert Möslang, Florian Eidenbenz
DEDICATIONS – DIE GEFILMTE LESUNG
Peter Liechti liest sein «Spital-Tagebuch» — ein sehr persönliches Protokoll über Leben und Tod. Die Aufnahmen stammen aus Liechtis Atelier und sollten als sprachliches Fundament für den Film dienen. Gedreht wurde im Januar 2014 im Atelier Birli, Appenzell Ausserrhoden; dazu wird ausgewähltes Super-8-Material aus dem Archiv von Peter Liechti gezeigt.
Duration: 50 Minutes
Text and image: Peter Liechti
Camera: Peter Guyer
Concept: Jolanda Gsponer, Annette Brütsch
Artistic assistant: Tania Stöcklin
Montage: Annette Brütsch
Music: Norbert Möslang
Production: Jolanda Gsponer, Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH
Co-production: Schweizer Fernsehen SRF
DEDICATIONS – THE BOOK
The book brings together stills and texts for Dedications, including pictures and notes that Peter Liechti collected on research trips for earlier film projects. The Hospital Diary is printed in its entirety. The accompanying DVD shows the fragment Liechti left behind—a raw cut of the first 15 minutes of the film.
Original material: Peter Liechti
Essays: Christoph Egger, Jolanda Gsponer
Concept: Jolanda Gsponer and Bonbon (Valeria Bonin, Diego Bontognali, Mirko Leuenberger)
Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2016