Harun Farocki
German filmmaker Harun Farocki began making films in the late 1960s amid a highly politicized cultural milieu. Citing the influence of such Marxist cultural practitioners as theater director Bertolt Brecht, philosopher Theodor Adorno, and film director Jean-Luc Godard, Farocki consistently addressed two principal subjects: the practices of labor and the production of images.
Farocki is particularly known for his explicitly political essay films, through which he examined these subjects while also openly confronting the inherently persuasive, manipulative properties of the cinematic medium. His 1969 essay film Inextinguishable Fire begins with Farocki facing the camera, recounting the testimony of a victim of napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. Using the medium of film to produce a visceral experience in the viewer, he puts out a cigarette on his wrist as a voiceover drily intones, “A cigarette burns at 400 degrees, napalm at 3,000.” The film then shifts to The Dow Chemical Company, a mundane workplace in the United States, where napalm’s compounds are created. In Videograms of a Revolution (1992; codirected with Andrei Ujica), Farocki focuses on the 1989 uprisings in Romania, where the toppling of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu resulted in an almost immediate change in the ways events were represented in the media; a one-sided, choreographed broadcast of the dictator gives way to a multiplicity of viewpoints unfolding in real time.
In sharp contrast to the explicit nature and strong authorial voice of the essay film, Farocki also used the genre of direct cinema, a kind of “fly-on-the-wall” filmmaking, in which the filmmaker’s point of view is rarely revealed. Many of his direct-cinema works unobtrusively observe media productions, training sessions, and product demonstrations. The Interview (1996–97) follows job application training courses for school dropouts, the long-term unemployed, and recovering drug addicts, who practice how to present and market themselves. Like other of his direct cinema productions, the film addresses how people in contemporary culture tend to self-consciously present themselves for observation, even when the camera is not present.
In his later works, Farocki explored what he termed “operative images”—technical images created for military and surveillance purposes that were not necessarily intended for public consumption. As he phrased it, “[T]hese are images that do not represent an object, but rather are part of an operation.”1 Serious Games (2009–10) shows how video games based on actual wars are used for the contradictory purposes of military training and post-traumatic stress disorder therapy. With this work, Farocki prompts viewers to think about the powerful role of visual media in shaping our understanding of ourselves and others, as well as about the social and political systems that send images into the world.
Introduction by Sarah Lookofsky, Assistant Director, International Program, 2016
- Introduction
- Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film.
- Wikidata
- Q67547
Exhibitions
-
Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011
Nov 3, 2019–Mar 1, 2020
MoMA PS1
-
New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century
Mar 17–Jun 15, 2019
MoMA
-
From the Collection:
1960–1969 Mar 26, 2016–Mar 19, 2017
MoMA
-
Zero Tolerance
Oct 26, 2014–Apr 13, 2015
MoMA PS1
-
MoMA Media Lounge
Feb 29, 2012–Jul 8, 2013
MoMA
-
Harun Farocki has
8 exhibitionsonline.
-
Harun Farocki The Words of the Chairman 1967
-
Harun Farocki Inextinguishable Fire 1969
-
Harun Farocki Between Two Wars 1977-1978
-
Harun Farocki Industry and Photography 1979
-
Harun Farocki Before Your Eyes: Vietnam 1982
-
Harun Farocki An Image 1983
-
Harun Farocki Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet at work on a film based on Franz Kafka's unfinished novel, "America” 1983
-
Harun Farocki As You See 1986
-
Harun Farocki Indoctrination 1987
-
Harun Farocki Images of the World and the Inscription of War 1988
-
Harun Farocki How to Live in the FRG 1989-1990
-
Harun Farocki What's Up? 1991
-
Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujică Videograms of a Revolution 1992
-
Harun Farocki A Day in the Life of the End Users 1993
-
Harun Farocki The Leading Role 1994
-
Harun Farocki Workers Leaving the Factory 1995
-
Harun Farocki Interface 1995
-
Harun Farocki The Appearance 1996
-
Harun Farocki The Interview 1996-1997
-
Harun Farocki Still Life 1997
-
Harun Farocki The Expression of Hands 1997
-
Harun Farocki Prison Images 2000
-
Harun Farocki I Thought I Was Seeing Convicts 2000
-
Harun Farocki The Creators of Shopping Worlds 2001
-
Harun Farocki Eye/Machine I, Auge/Maschine I 2001
-
Harun Farocki Eye/Machine II, Auge/Maschine II 2002
-
Harun Farocki Eye/Machine I-III, Auge/Maschine I-III 2001-2003
-
Harun Farocki Eye/Machine III, Auge/Maschine III 2003
-
Harun Farocki War at a Distance 2003
-
Harun Farocki Counter Music 2004
-
Harun Farocki Nothing Ventured 2004
-
Harun Farocki In-Formation 2005
-
Harun Farocki On Construction of Griffith's Films 2006
-
Harun Farocki Respite 2007
-
Harun Farocki Comparison via a Third 2007
-
Harun Farocki Transmission 2007
-
Harun Farocki Serious Games III: Immersion 2009
-
Harun Farocki In Comparison 2009
-
Harun Farocki Serious Games I-IV 2009-2010
-
Harun Farocki Serious Games I: Watson is Down 2010
-
Harun Farocki Serious Games II: Three Dead 2010
-
Harun Farocki Serious Games IV: A Sun with No Shadow 2010
-
Harun Farocki The Silver and the Cross 2010
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
All requests to license audio or video footage produced by MoMA should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills or motion picture footage from films in MoMA’s Film Collection cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For licensing motion picture film footage it is advised to apply directly to the copyright holders. For access to motion picture film stills please contact the Film Study Center. More information is also available about the film collection and the Circulating Film and Video Library.
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication or moma.org, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].