Im Dickicht der Städte (In the Jungle of Cities), 2003

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Im Dickicht der Städte (In the Jungle of Cities)
2003
several found footage videos of various duration
for theatre play In the Jungle of Cities, written by Bertolt Brecht,
and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin, 2003
Colour, sound
Aspect ratio 4:3

Providing the backdrop for the Schaubühne’s adaption of Brecht’s play, Rosefeldt’s videos add a striking and progressive dynamism to the complexities of the relationships, urban capitalism and human isolation played out on stage. By using material collected from an array of sci-fi animation films and manga comics, imagery of bleak Chicago – the play’s setting – is rather substituted for Asia, endorsing a shift in today’s centre of global power and thus, the engulfing risks of its fast-paced metropolises. Sedative pans of modern, built-up cities present themselves in technicolour projections as flying cars navigate through the mass. In other scenes, Geisha-like women adorn the backdrop, or the pace increases as trippy Manga pin-ups mimic the dancing onstage. As the struggle unfolds between the characters, Rosefeldt’s videos use exaggerated surrealism to reveal a futuristic vision of loneliness amidst the ever-expanding density of Brecht’s imagined jungle.

E. Lapper