Artists Space

In The Poem About Love You Don't Write The Word Love
Film Series at Anthology Film Archives
Program 1

Screening
January 8, 2007, 7:30pm

Program 1 of the film series accompanying the exhibition, In The Poem About Love You Don't Write The Word Love, held at Anthology Film Archives.

A poster design featuring two figures—a child and an older man—superimposed on a dark backdrop. The child
[A poster design featuring two figures—a child and an older man—superimposed on a dark backdrop. The child's image has a blue hue and takes the shape of a circular cut-out, while the older man's image has a yellow hue. Above both figures, white text superimposed against a towering city skyline reads, "DER ANGRIFF DER GEGENWART AUF DIE UBRIGE ZEIT / EIN FILM VON ALEXANDER KLUGE."]

Alexander Kluge, The Blind Director (1986)
16mm film, colour and black-and-white; 113 minutes. Courtesy of the artist, British Film Institute, London, and Goethe-Institut, Glasgow.

The Blind Director (otherwise known more appropriately as The Present Versus The Rest of Time) addresses audiovision at its most basic level. The viewer is placed in the position of having to discover over and over his/her eagerness to consume a story and to be consumed by it. Kluge laments the notion that there is practically only one image that we can relate to, one story, one line of continuity. He effectively transforms our viewing experience by laying bare the devices of cinema, repeatingly forcing us to face the conditions by which technologically mediated modes of narrative and continuity have been absorbed and naturalized, in turn actively impelling us to challenge information and mediation, within an impossible present time.