Directing

Viking Eggeling

Born October 21, 1880 · Lund, Sweden

Died May 19, 1925 · aged 44

Viking Eggeling was a Swedish avant-garde artist and filmmaker connected to dadaism, Constructivism and abstract art and was one of the pioneers in absolute film and visual music. His 1924 film Diagonal-Symphonie is one of the seminal abstract films in the history of experimental cinema. At the age of sixteen, the orphaned Eggeling moved to Germany to pursue an artistic career. He studied art his…

Known For

Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra

Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra · 1920

Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra

Experimental film by Viking Eggeling. Now lost.

Diagonal Symphony

Diagonal Symphony · 1924

Diagonal Symphony

A tilted figure, consisting largely of right angles at the beginning, grows by accretion, with the addition of short straight lines and curves which sprout from the existing design. The figure vanishes and the process begins again with a new pattern, each cycle lasting one or two seconds. The complete figures are drawn in a vaguely Art Deco style and could be said to resemble any number of things, an ear, a harp, panpipes, a grand piano with trombones, and so on, only highly stylized. The tone is playful and hypnotic.

Filmography

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Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra

Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra · 1920

Horizontal-Vertical Orchestra

Experimental film by Viking Eggeling. Now lost.

Director

Diagonal Symphony

Diagonal Symphony · 1924

Diagonal Symphony

A tilted figure, consisting largely of right angles at the beginning, grows by accretion, with the addition of short straight lines and curves which sprout from the existing design. The figure vanishes and the process begins again with a new pattern, each cycle lasting one or two seconds. The complete figures are drawn in a vaguely Art Deco style and could be said to resemble any number of things, an ear, a harp, panpipes, a grand piano with trombones, and so on, only highly stylized. The tone is playful and hypnotic.

Director