Luftschloss premiere in Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam June 20 - 2021 >>>

Luftschloss imaginatively and deliberately destructs a nazi bunker that nowadays still towers over Vienna. In 1942 Hitler himself gave the orders to erect several 55m tall Flak towers to protect the historic city of Vienna. These colossal concrete castles were meant to become symbols of a victorious Third Reich. The way Europe deals with such historically burdened heritage has paradoxically led to the conservation of its original intention. The seeming indestructible castles still tower over the city. Until today.

The short film was made by mixing filmed images of the hydro‑demolition of reinforced concrete (3 x 2 x 2 meter) with CGI animation, which we created on the basis of secret historical drawings of the Flak tower.

Project: Luftschloss

Location: Augarten Vienna, Austria

i.c.w. Olivier Campagne, ArtefactoryLab

Short film: 5.16 min.

Concrete construction: Schaart Adventures, Koos Schaart

Hydrodemolition:  Hompert - Renes  Ogi Animation, Oliver Campagne and Artefactorylab 

Sound Design:  Joop Schroen, RAAAF

Team RAAAF: Ronald Rietveld, Erik Rietveld, David Habets, Daria Khozhai

Camera: Roberto Rizzo and Rodolfo Vejar

Photography: Daniel Haas

With the support of: The Society of Arts of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (KNAW).  Research for this work was financially supported by Mondriaan fund for visual Arts, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO VIDI Grant)and the European Research Council (ERC  Starting Grant number 679190) for Erik`s Rietveld project AFFORDS-HIGHER.