Summer in Provence. A young woman is hitchhiking, headed south. She gets into the car of a man from the region. The woman’s complete attention is fixed on the beauty of the nature passing by. The driver suggests taking a detour over Mont Sainte Victoire: He could show her the place where Cézanne used to paint. And while the young hitchhiker fantasizes about being in the world of Cézanne, the man loses himself in her youth…
At the heart of Isabell Heimerdinger’s art lies the confrontation with the cinema and the conditions of its production. In experimental films such as I was Andy Warhol’s Dracula, Alice (both 2000), Waiting, Acting Waiting (2002) or Lovefilm (2004), in which Heimerdinger worked with Udo Kier, Rüdiger Vogler, Wolfram Berger, and Bibiana Beglau, she explores the territory between acted and unacted reality. Detour continues this series and also signals an expansion of the artist’s cinematographic and narrative possibilities.
With Nikola Kastner and Christopher Buchholz in the lead roles, Detour is a highly nuanced road movie. The picturesque backdrop of Provence, which influenced Paul Cézanne more than any other, is equally captivating.

Mehdi Chouakri

List of Works

Isabell Heimerdinger
Detour, 2007