Das Meisterspiel

Master Game

In 1994, 27 paintings by the Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer are painted over in black in the Wiener Kunstakademie by an unidentified person. Arnulf Rainer had become world famous for painting over both his own paintings and those by other artists. Who had painted over the "over-painter"?

At the time, Austria is badly shaken by a series of bomb attacks. There are fatalities and injuries. The "Bavarian Freedom Army" (BBA), who sees Austria′s "German identity" threatened, confess to the attacks. Is there a connection between the attack in the Wiener Kunstakademie and the BBA bombing? Are over-painter and bombing artist identical? Is it an individual culprit or a group? Did Arnulf Rainer paint over his own paintings, as some in the media speculate? Is the BBA in fact nonexistent, in reality the fabrication of a lunatic? Or of the secret services? Are the actions just fakes, an ideological theater of distraction? What is reality, simulation or invention?

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH