IRREALITY.TV is a collaboration between random people (Esther Pilkington, Daniel Ladnar) and red park (Jörg Thums, Lars Moritz) – and a platform for site-specific and participatory television projects. The series are created in collaboration with local people. At the heart of the project is the question of what should or could happen if life were a television series. IRREALITY.TV calls this ›soapification‹. Otmar Wagner has been involved in several projects, primarily as a performer and actor, but also as a workshop- and camp site leader.

PING PONG SPLIT SCREEN

brut Vienna and the surrounding area, May–June / September 2023

irreality.tv: Daniel Ladnar, Lars Moritz, Esther Pilkington, Jörg Thums / Performance and workshop leader: Otmar Wagner / Set design and architecture: Simon Oberhammer, Anna Orbanić / Music: Manuel Scuzzo

PING PONG SPLIT SCREEN is a film about table tennis, about two locations in Vienna and about everyday life there. In May and June 2023, a blue, multifunctional table tennis table appeared at Wallensteinplatz in the 20th district and at Volkertplatz in the 2nd district. It was the setting for exciting matches and unusual events. As always with irreality.tv, there was no script in the run-up to filming, and anyone who wanted to could take part – whether for a game of ping pong and/or a role in the film. In September 2023, the film’s gala premiere took place at brut Wien. Find out more on the irreality.tv website.

NACHTWACHE (NIGHT WATCH)

Sandleiten District, Vienna, May–June / October 2018

irreality.tv: Daniel Ladnar, Lars Moritz, Esther Pilkington, Jörg Thums / featuring: Otmar Wagner as Mr. Sandmann / Production: Elisabeth Haid & Magdalena Scheicher / Music: EXPRESSWAY SKETCHES / Set design: Elisabeth Haid, Julia Stefanie Meyer, Simon Oberhammer, Pia Prantl, Josef Schröck / Graphic design: Christian Raab / in co-production with: brut Vienna and SOHO in Ottakring

NACHTWACHE tells the story of a world that first optimised sleep and then all but abolished it. But resistance is growing: a Sleepeasy opens in the back room of Café Sandmann. Hope for a blackout lives on.
NACHTWACHE was filmed over four weeks in May and June 2018, mainly in Sandleiten in Vienna’s 16th district. There was no script, and anyone who liked to take part was welcome to join in. The gala premiere took place in October 2018 at the Stadtkino Vienna. The film’s 15 chapters can be viewed here.

EBENSEE RISING

Festival of the Regions, Ebensee, Austria, June 2015

irreality.tv: Daniel Ladnar, Lars Moritz, Esther Pilkington, Jörg Thums /Guerrilla Camp site manager and performer: Otmar Wagner / Camp construction and camp residents: Students from the University of Arts Linz – Architecture | Urban Studies / Camera: Bernd Thiele and irreality.tv / Editing: Lars Moritz, Bernd Thiele / Music: Jens Cappel / Graphic design: Christian Raab / in cooperation with: University of Arts Linz, Architecture | Urban Studies, Head: Sabine Pollak

Invited by the Festival of the Regions, irreality.tv produced the mystery-political-regional series EBENSEE RISING. The series’ protagonists were cast directly on location. The events of the series were developed in collaboration with the cast and crew. The plot: A ghost haunts Ebensee – the spirit of Anton Nußbaumer, the only person to die in the February Revolt of 1934.
As the central location for EBENSEE RISING, a guerrilla camp was built on the lakeshore under the direction of Otmar Wagner to serve as both accommodation and film set – featuring objects and installations such as: a viewing tower, a catapult, a treehouse, an obstacle course, a camp kitchen, a floating polyhedron, and a huge deer sculpture that went up in flames in the final act. Click here to watch the three episodes of the series.