Nicolas Wiese
»…Unbekümmert um sein Gesicht dämmert es durch die Zeit.«
(»…Unconcerned about its face, it snoozes through time.«)
Animation video, stereo sound
1920×1080
7’00

Based on: Siegfried Kracauer ‚Die Strassen in Berlin und anderswo‘
(‚The streets in Berlin and elsewhere‘) a collection of texts/essays written between 1925 and 1933, published in the 1960s.
Two short texts have been taken from the book as the foundation of this piece: one of them describes a dark and unpleasant underpass, the other one reflects the 4th floor window view, both in the area around Charlottenburg train station, where Kracauer used to live between 1930 and1933.

The moods of these two poetic texts – one of them dark and menacing, the other one festive and almost euphoric in regards to the city scape – are brought into a shimmering juxtaposition.

The imagery of this stop-motion based work has been collected and constructed between spring 2020 (first covid shutdown) and spring 2021, a time span in which, due to different phases of the pandemic, a ghostly atmosphere has temporarily captured the city – a circumstance which has certainly added to the result.
The music/sound elements are generated from Charlottenburg site recordings as well.

The development and first version of this work has been made possible by a support grant of the Berlin Senate.
A second version is currently in progress: adding more English translation ‚subtitles‘ and an alternate sound / speech arrangement.

https://youtu.be/z8Zlv6mvGqo > Unlisted preview of the first version
(please choose HD option)