Welcome to the auditorium of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Tonight you were supposed to see the video work The Zone by People Like Us. This work of appropriation art refers to two historic films: The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Victor Fleming is screened on the left, on the right Stalker by Andrey Tarkovsky (1970).
At first, the films seem to be screening alongside but without relation to each other; when Judy Garland starts jabbering away, the opening credits in Stalker are still on the screen. But an increasing number of reference points appear between the images, as if the silly figures on the left and the dead serious characters on the right are communicating with each other. Both films in their original version switch from black and white to colour and the subtle interventions in montage are only apparent when both films are adapted so that this happens at exactly the same time.
The installation of The Zone in this auditorium, a hall built in the 1950s at the Inner German border to represent the communication possible between worlds, would have created an imaginary museum.
But unfortunately the legal department of one of the copyright holders, Mosfilm, insisted on stopping the distribution of the The Zone, which is why it has been withdrawn from circulation. Therefore we are not able to show the work right now.
We can just invite you to imagine an imaginary film museum.
Read More | "About The Zone" | Vicki Bennett | ?People Like Us