Outburst

by Judith Engel

How did ancient culture influence the modern construction of European identity? What kind of ancient relicts do we find in today’s perceptions of “European values”? How does “ancient reality” differ from the myth of a culture that established an early understanding of democracy? This project aims to examine the relation between ancient Greek & Roman culture and its perception in the realm of European self-conception. The two ancient cities Pompeii and Herculaneum that were buried by Vesuvius’s eruption 79 A.D. serve as an example for the creation of myths of Europe’s roots in ancient times that might have never existed in this form.

Through playfully introducing different voices as characters of an online chat, the film evolves from a variety of comments on the fictional event of Vesuvius’s outburst in 2018. The comments are accompanied by a dilettantish production of a papier-mâché volcano that questions the constructed character of the writing of history.