Heavy Metal Detox

Although films by Blake Edwards or John Cassavetes use dentistry as the basis for black comedy, they lack something: the camera is never close enough to really study the process. Placing himself in the frame as the anaesthetized subject, Dabernig trusts his crew to record everything in pure black-and-white: drills, wires, pipes, clamps, drool, blood, floss. No abstract poetry as in Brakhage’s autopsy film; only a calm soundtrack of synthesized tones and buzzing machines. As often in Dabernig’s multimedia work, social obedience squares of with the strange ecstasy of abandoning oneself to fate. (Viennale)