HEIKE
BARANOWSKY

Looming, ZKM Karlsruhe, 2006

 

Synchron/4-channel video projection, 16:9 and 4:3 projection screens 55 in. height, 16:33 min. loop, colour, stereo, in sync

in collaboration with Waszem Khan

camera: Volker Gläser

 

Looming is a series of counter running zoom recordings, in which scenes from everyday life in the Chinese capital come into focus: a refuse collector sells rubbish for recycling and unloads it in front of a mural painting in an almost completely demolished city district; three older women doing early morning exercises are goose-stepping along precise figure of eight tracks; another woman hammers the dents out of metal pots in order to resell them; a flock of pigeons circles above the back yard of a restaurant. The series develops a portrait of a city being subjected to massive, radical changes. Here, the distortions in perception and false interpretations caused by the zoom suggest that to a large extent, such radical changes cannot be comprehended.