1
Eye/Machine III (Auge/Maschine III), 2003. Video, 2 screens, 25 minutes
Harun Farocki notes that the Gulf war, like the Vietnam war, produced a glut of images. The Eye/Machine series, of which this work is the last, explores the 'intelligent image', which functions without human intervention. Cruise missiles are programmed to compare a stored image of a landscape and an image taken during flight, which Farocki understands as a 'comparison between idea and reality, a confrontation between pure war and the impurity of the actual. This confrontation is also a montage...'
2
Comparison Via a Third (Vergleich über ein Drittes), 2007. 16 mm transferred to video, 2 screens, 24 minutes
The filming of labour is an ongoing concern of Farocki's. Here the two screens compare 16 mm footage of brick-making in traditional, newly industrialising and industrialised societies, shot by Farocki on location in Burkina Faso, India, France, and Germany.
3
Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades (Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik in elf Jahrzehnten), 2006. Video, 12 monitors, 36 minutes
The title refers to the Lumière Brothers 1895 film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, the earliest motion picture. Film clips from the past 110 years are shown simultaneously, placing the Lumière Brothers 45 second film alongside Fritz Lang's Clash by Night, 1952, in which Marilyn Monroe is seen leaving the assembly line, and Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, 2000. Farocki and Ehmann have written: 'the existence of factories and movie stars are not compatible... Factories - and the whole subject of labour - are at the fringes of film history.'
4
Transmission, 2007. Video, 1 screen, 43 minutes
Though made for a single screen, this is a loop designed for galleries or projection outdoors. Its subject is the memorial stone, a site where memory seems permanently fixed. The work of hands is one of Farocki's preoccupations. Here they are used not in labour, but in the hope of connecting with the past through the magic of touch.
5
I Thought I Was Seeing Convicts (Ich glaubte Gefangene zu sehen), 2000. Video, 2 screens, 23 minutes
CCTV footage from inside Corcoran State prison in California, provided by a civil liberties group, shows the death of a prisoner shot by guards during a fight. Farocki has written: 'The camera and the gun are right next to each other. The field of vision and the gun viewfinder fall together...'
6
Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki
Feasting or Flying (Fressen oder Fliegen), 2008. Video, 6 screens, 24 minutes
Antje Ehmann describes Feasting or Flying as a homage to the film actor, as well as a deconstruction of the tragic hero in cinema. The work incorporates scenes from seventy years of film on the subject of male suicide, exploring the ways cinema constructs narratives of failure. The title refers to film scholar Helmut Farber's remark that 'some dissect a bird in order to eat it, others in order to discover how to fly'.
7
Immersion, 2009. Video, 2 screens, 20 minutes
Farocki obtained permission to film a workshop for the US military organised by the Institute for Creative Technologies in California. The workshop demonstrates how the virtual reality scenarios of computer games can be used to treat post-traumatic stress in soldiers returning from Iraq.
8
On Construction of Griffith's Films (Zur Bauweise des Films bei Griffith), 2006. Video, 2 monitors, 9 minutes
By recording changes in the work of filmmaker D. W. Griffith up to Intolerance, 1916, Farocki reveals the development of certain cinematic conventions. Farocki and Ehmann have written about the work: 'It shows a dialogue between a man and woman, filmed and edited as shot and counter shot. We reproduce the take on two monitors to reveal its narrative character and also because analysis requires us to dissect something.'
9
Interface (Schnittstelle), 1995. Video, 2 monitors, 25 minutes
This was Farocki's first two-screen project following an invitation by the Museum of Modern Art in Lille to make a video 'about his work'. For Farocki this meant his manual work at the editing table, in front of two screens.
Videotheque
The following films are available to view in the entrance area from 6 December. Please ask at the front desk.
The Words of the Chairman, 1967, 3 minutes
Their Newspapers, 1968, 17 minutes
Inextinguishable Fire, 1969, 25 minutes
Between Two Wars, 1978, 83 minutes
Industry and Photography, 1979, 44 minutes
Before Your Eyes - Vietnam, 1982, 114 minutes
An Image, 1983, 25 minutes
As You See, 1986, 72 minutes
Indoctrination, 1987, 44 minutes
Images of the World and the Inscription of War, 1988, 75 minutes
How to Live in the FRG, 1990, 83 minutes
What's Up?, 1991, 60 minutes
Videograms of a Revolution, 1992, 106 minutes
A Day in the Life of the Consumer, 1993, 44 minutes
The Leading Role, 1994, 35 minutes
Workers Leaving the Factory, 1995, 36 minutes
The Interview, 1997, 58 minutes
Still Life, 1997, 56 minutes
Prison Images, 2000, 60 minutes
The Creators of the Shopping Worlds, 2001, 72 minutes
War at a Distance, 2003, 58 minutes
Nothing Ventured, 2004, 50 minutes
Respite, 2007, 40 minutes
In Comparison, 2009, 61 minutes
All works courtesy: àngels barcelona, Barcelona; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg/Paris; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York