ZURICH.- To an alternately rousing and poignant soundtrack, Indians chase a stagecoach and a tightrope walker balances on a wire above a city – these images feature in the found footage masterpiece A MOVIE (1958), an assemblage of newsreel images and film clips that established the reputation of American artist Bruce Conner (1933–2008). Today, Conner is viewed as one of the pioneers of the music video. Based on his experimental films, he is also mentioned in the same breath as Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol as part of the avant-garde of independent American filmmaking. Diversity is the hallmark of Conner’s work and it is also reflected in his multiple careers and manifold identities. Drawings, collages, sculptures, assemblages, paintings, prints, photographs and films are just as much a part of his oeuvre as his conceptual, ephemeral, destroyed and lost – “invisible” – works. Conner explored topics like identity, biogra