Time Of The Last Wastelands
Berlin, DE 2019
16mm film, 2K scan, digital animation, sound, billboards in public space
Film: (variable in size), Billboards: approx. 350cm x 250cm each
When I moved back my hometown after being abroad for many years, I noticed that many of the urban wastelands from the 90’s and early 2000’s were gone.
To me the wasteland always belonged to Berlin. It used to be a landmark, a dis-place for disobedience and alternatives in the city. The wasteland defined Berlin and its charm. They function as a natural memorial, as they are a result of the bombings during World War 2. The wasteland is also urban wilderness and an unregulated space for everybody. While in Japan one seems to recognize the value of these voids as they have various positive terms for the wasteland while in the West these spaces are literally seen as a mere waste of land.
I decided I had to film those places before they were built up. I used an old and defect 16mm camera which created an effect that would let the light drip beyond the edges.
I scanned and disassembled the film material into thousands of film stills and reduced the amount of images and film speed drastically. As a result, you can now see one film still every second defining a new rhythm opposed to the usual 24 frames per second. It can’t be quite determined whether if this is still a film (motion-picture) or pictures. It is a hybrid referring to the analogue by means of the digital. The animated movement of the single frame from top to bottom every second confesses being in fact a mere sequence of stills. The film refers to its original format, to the film spool on the analogue projector and also on a formal level it functions as a countdown for the last wastelands of Berlin. The gaps in between houses of the perforated city are synonymous to the gaps in between the frames of a film. Stills from this film have also been enlarged and placed on commercial billboards in public space, raising awareness on the importance of emptiness.
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on Potsdamer Str. close to the wasteland