PROGRAMMA 3: OPTICS OF WAR
Alternative Histories of Modern Conflict
Sunday, 8 June, 20.00h, Cinema
When machines in conjunction with science and the military dictate what is to be seen, one’s outlook and thoughts are not free. This inherent manipulation through visual technology is investigated in some of the essay films by the acclaimed German filmmaker Harun Farocki. In this program, Farocki is brought together with Dutch artist Wim Liebrand whose work also deals with the belligerent world of images.
VERGELTUNG
Wim Liebrand
video / 00:03:00 / The Netherlands / 1995
Liebrand utilizes image and sound fragments from archival material of Nazi Germany and World War II, mainly footage of V1 and V2 missiles. With those ‘Vergeltungswaffen’ (retaliatory weapons) Germany tried to turn around the war in 1944/45. The associative montage in the video reveals the collusion of technological power and frantic fulfillment of duty in a lost war.
IMAGES OF THE WORLD AND INSCRIPTION OF WAR
Harun Farocki
16mm / 00:75:00 / Germany / 1988
A film about the relationships of war, industry, the production and perception of images. ‘The vantage point of Images of the World and Inscription of War is the ‘blind spot’ in this aerial footage of the IG Farben industrial plant in Auschwitz taken by the Americans in 1944. Notes on the photo- graphs show that it was only decades later that the CIA noticed what the Allies hadn’t wanted to see: the concentration camp was indeed depicted next to the industrial bombing target’. (Christa Blümlinger)