Parallel II, 2014. One-channel video installation, color, sound, 9 minutes.
Harun Farocki, “Reality Would Have to Begin,” Imprint: Writings / Nachdruck: Texte, ed. Susanne Gaensheimer and Nicolaus Schafhausen (New York: Lukas & Sternberg; Berlin: Vorwerk 8, 2001), 186–213 →.
Parallel IV, 2014. One-channel video installation, color, sound, 11 minutes.
There is a strong parallel to Martha Rosler’s work Bringing The War Home, made in the same year, which also insists on the domesticity and ubiquity of warfare.
From Parallel I, 2012. Two-channel video installation, color, sound, 16 minutes.
This work is preceded by “Ein Bild,” a conversation with Vilem Flusser about a cover of Bild Zeitung. Also, obviously reality has always been created by representations to an extent, but this period marks the emergence of reality being created by digital imagery.
At some point during the stampede cinema becomes a casualty too. It ceases to be a place where production condenses social conflict.
On the Construction of Griffith’s Films (Zur Bauweise des Films bei Griffith), 2006. Two-channel video installation, black and white, 8 minutes.
Workers Leaving the Factory (Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik), 1995. Digital video, sound, 36 minutes. Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades (Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik in elf Jahrzehnten), 2006. Twelve-channel video installation, 36 minutes.
Another version is installed in Essen right now, showing actual workers leaving factories in fifteen different countries, as part of the work Labour in a Single Shot codirected with Antje Ehmann. I haven’t seen it yet.
The Appearance (Der Auftritt), 1996. Video, sound, 40 minutes; The Interview (Die Bewerbung), 1997. Video, sound, 58 minutes; Nothing Ventured (Nicht ohne Risiko), 2004. Video, sound, 50 minutes.
I Thought I was Seeing Convicts (Ich glaubte Gefangene zu sehen), 2000. Video, sound, 60 minutes; The Creators of Shopping Worlds (Die Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten), 2001. Video, sound, 72 minutes; In Comparison (Im Vergleich), 2009. Video, sound, 60 minutes.
Respite (Der Aufschub), 2007. Video, sound, 38 minutes.
From Serious Games I: Watson is Down. 2010. Two-channel video installation, color, sound, 8 minutes.
Philipp Goll, “Harun Farocki: Ein posthum erscheinendes Interview über Fußball, Mao und das Filmemachen,” Jungle World no. 32 (August 2014) →.
A reference to recent conversations with Brian Kuan Wood and Andrew Norman Wilson’s work, Sone →.
Harun’s Volvo cabrio might have singlehandedly saved the GDR if strategically deployed at May Day parades.
From Parallel I, 2012. Two-channel video installation, color, sound, 16 minutes.
Note: This text is written in the mode of fan prose. Of all Farocki’s 120 or so moving image works, I have seen only about two thirds. People who have written on his work with expertise, lucidity, and insight include Thomas Elsaesser, Christa Blümlinger, Tilman Baumgärtel, Nora Alter, Georges Didi-Huberman, Olaf Möller, Volker Pantenburg, Tom Keenan, and many others. Please read their writings for a comprehensive overview of Harun Farocki’s body of work spanning almost five decades. For biographical background please watch Anna Faroqhi’s outstanding short video that gives a most beautiful account: A Common Life (Ein gewöhnliches Leben) (2006–07, 26 minutes). Thank you to Harun Farocki’s longtime collaborator Matthias Rajmann for providing instant access to online downloads.