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| Plänterwald
| 2010 |
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| High Definition video | 17:50 Video projection with 4-channel sound, raised wood screen construction
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<< | Plänterwald, production still (photo by Martin Thacker) 1/23 | >> |
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Plänterwald is filmed on the site of a former GDR amusement park built in 1969 and abandoned after unification. Its rollercoaster and ferris wheel sit motionless at the edge of the city of Berlin. After being closed to the public for almost a decade the rides and fairground structures –once providing a distraction from everyday realities –are left to a gradual process of decay and overgrowth. Paradoxically this derelict site is patrolled and protected by security guards who on the one hand attempt to maintain its separation from the public sphere and contemporary life yet at the same time position it in the present social and economic conditions. The video stages a journey in, over and through this bordered off park evoking the exceptional conditions of its persistent existence. Positioning the security guards as the guardians of a ‘dead’ space, the work plays on the absurdity of the use of force and notion of property in relation to the decay and obsolescence of the site. Plänterwald pursues an exploration of a world held together by an internal logic, and quietly, yet relentlessly—like the defunct rollercoaster—echoes the rumbles of deep social and political fault lines and their explosive potential. |
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Plänterwald Credits: Security Guards: Jürgen Salzmann, Steven Herbst, Herr Knitzer Field Producer: Sarah Poehlmann Cinematographer: André Götzmann Second Camera: Daniel Sippel Grip: Mirko Fricke, Jan Hagen Production assistance: Hadley Howes, Maxwell Stephens Sound Capture and Design: Johannes Krämer Editor: Mathieu Bouchard-Malo Post Production: Christoph Manz, Sylvain Cosssette Sound Mix: Martin Hurtubise Set Photographer: Martin Thacker Funding: Conseil des arts et des letters du Québec Post Production assistance: PRIM Special Thank-you to Emge Security for their participation in the project |