"ULAM" by Christian Mayer shown in the exhibition Words as Doors – in Language, Art, Film relates to the language invented by Anthony Burgess for the 1980 film "La guerre du feu" by the French director Jean-Jacques Annaud: a language that is supposed to sound like the language of stone-age people about 80,000 years ago. The whole film was shot in the “Ulam” language, completely without subtitles. Christian Mayer’s video material with the performers now concerns historic shots taken before the shooting for the film and shows actors learning the language. With this time difference of 35 years thus something similar is being attempted under completely different circumstances. On the audio track there is additionally an interview with one of the actors who then played in "La guerre du feu". She remembers how she first came into contact with the language during the shooting and what she felt about it.

Christian Mayer will present the publication on the work shown in the exhibition and discuss the development history of "ULAM" with Christian Egger.