Constellation 2 consists of three elements: a ring-shaped projection machine, a sourced rock, and a single strip of 16 mm film. On the body of the machine, four analog projectors are mounted, through which the film runs in a perfect continuous loop. At the center of the ring, a rock is placed on a narrow pedestal. Onto its imperfect surface, a distorted 360-degree portrait is projected from four angles simultaneously.

Up close, the portrayed person’s head appears to spin around its own axis. The images flicker, distort, and merge as the four projections wrap around the rock. At times we clearly see the person blinking, gazing into the void, only to morph into something unfamiliar in the next moment.
Stepping back and moving radially away from the center, additional rocks surround both the viewer and the central piece, each placed on tall, narrow metal pedestals. Together, these elements form a spatial and temporal constellation accompanied by the distinct rhythmic beat of the analog film projectors.

Being a part of a larger series of portraits on analog film, the work began with three basic concepts: to portray people who play an important role in the artist’s life while preserving an idea of their nature, to film 360-degree portraits of their heads on 16 mm film, and to select stones as a physical embodiment of each person.

In this intricate arrangement, Constellation 2 merges engineered control and measurement with nature’s fluidity and variation. It endlessly performs the unfolding of time and, through the interplay of its components, offers the intangible: the moving image, the essence of a person, and the futile desire to hold onto a single significant moment. As the viewer is separated from the projection by the machine, it becomes possible to see all parts at once: the film, the projection, and the mechanics. Again, at once, what appears is both an optical illusion and a map to how affection distorts and enhances the mind’s eye.

Creation and production: Nils Benedikt Fischer
Film, photography: Konstantin von Sichart, Antonio Castles
Text: My Sjöberg
Research: Valeria Ruiz Mendoza
With support from: Kunstfonds Bonn, NEUSTART-Kultur-Stipendium

Nils Benedikt Fischer (DE) studied Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts and currently lives and works in Berlin. In his practice, he brings together sculpture, film, and engineered mechanisms to create arrangements in which images, materials, and movement enter into dialogue. Through carefully designed machines, he preserves otherwise fragile and ephemeral experiences—such as dreams, memories, and fears— by setting them into continuous loops of repetition. In doing so, he produces spaces where the work speaks through its own internal tensions while inviting viewers to adapt, project, and locate themselves within its unfolding.

Constellation 2 offers a return to the roots of film and animation. Nils Benedikt Fischer’s ingenious mechanical contraption uses four projectors arranged at 90-degree angles. A continuous film strip circulates through these projectors, transforming a stone mounted at the center into a projection screen—or rather, into the object of projection—upon which the images of a human face merge. The projected human head appears to rotate around its own axis, pulling faces and opening and closing its eyes, all while the stone remains fixed in place. The inanimate object is thus brought to life and animated by the light.