Photos from the movie set of a movie not made.

Shot in the artificial ruins of a civil service and firefighter’s training area.
This place exists to train the civil service in possible real life encounters of natural catastrophies and disasters. Firefighters would train to enter and safely extinguish fires in buildings. All the buildings onsite are artificially built to resemble ruins.
The two figures were spending there some leisure time during a nice sunset. Playing backgammon and perhaps mulling over some big questions in life and having a good time. Touching upon Ingmar Bergman’s The seventh seal and it’s iconic chess scene, it is however not clear, who these two characters represent. Neither death, nor the wisdom-seeking knight, nor the jolly joker. It seems as if the poles opposite each other have been inverted into a liminal moment of indecisiveness. A space in time detached from reality and its urge for meaning. Much like in backgammon, where you need to get past each other, rather than fight. To ride the moment of luck and chance, to simply be. In this dream-like state of mind, time seems forgotten all together. It is arcadia.

Artist: Jürgen Baumann
Photography, masks and costumes: Jürgen Baumann @juergen_baumann
Actors: Nicola Genovese and Bene Andrist