Interested in performance, and with a background in scenography as well as fine art, Ulla von Brandenburg often brings together the past and the present in her work. In Ein Zaubertrickfilm, the German artist creates a video that draws on the experiments of early cinema. This silent black and white film features the artist’s friends performing a variety of tricks, sight gags and slights of hand, some of which are enhanced due to the manipulations that became possible with the invention of the moving image. Not all of the tricks are successful in conventional terms, but each individual completes their “act” to the best of their ability, often with humor.