"Against What? Against Whom?" is a monograph about the author, film maker and video artist Harun Farocki. Its the first book about Farocki that is neither a purely academic publication nor an exhibition catalogue.

Impressed by Peter Weiss’ novel The Aesthetics of Resistance, whose first volume had been published in 1975, Farocki planned to conduct a long TV interview with Weiss for the German public-broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

Die Bedeutung des Begriffs Freiheit unterliegt einem stetigen Wandel. Vor dem Hintergrund der historischen Entwicklung nähert sich diese Ausstellung auf psychologischer, sozialer, kultureller, religiöser, politischer und rechtlicher Ebene einem zeitgenössischen Verständnis von Freiheit an.

Diese Publikation versammelt künstlerische Positionen, die das Buch nicht nur als Medium der Dokumentation, sondern als eigenständige Form der Kunst begreifen.

Abweichend von der journalistischen Routine des Interviews, zeigt sich hier der Versuch, aus der unbefangenen Begegnung eine eigenständige Form zu entwickeln, die nicht dem Schema der Prominentenbefragung und dem Gebot des pointierten Statements gehorcht, sondern an der Idee einer souveränen Diskussion orientiert ist.

Ausstellungskatalog

Harun Farocki bezieht sich in dem Titel auf eine Eselsbrücke, die es Filmvorführern erleichtert, die richtige Abfolge von Filmrollen zu erkennen.

„Gagarin – The Artists in their own words“ is an artist’s magazine, entirely dedicated to the publication of especially written and unpublished texts by artists who are now working, anywhere in the world.

In Autumn and Winter 2013/2014, Christa Blümlinger and Harun Farocki worked on the dialogical “ABCs of the Essay Film,” which is published here for the first time in its original German version. In 26 short paragraphs, reacting to key terms suggested by Christa Blümlinger (from “A for Adorno” to “Z for Zidane”), Farocki explores his proximity, but also his distance to filmmakers like Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard, Artavazd Peleshian, or Alexander Kluge and speaks about specific operations in his films, TV programs, and installations.

In the mid-1970s, Harun Farocki wrote a two-page call programmatically entitled What Ought to Be Done, followed by a survey addressed to potential collaborators and supporters.

HaFI 008 presents an unpublished talk given by Harun Farocki in 1987 at the event “Films that Think in Images” at the Akademie der Künste, West Berlin.

A small selection of texts written by the outstanding film critic and translator Frieda Grafe, complemented by the speech that Harun Farocki gave when Grafe and Enno Patalas were given the “01 award” in 2000.

Ein Heft zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Harun Farockis Film Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (1988), der sich zwischen 1985 und 1988 in mehreren Etappen aus dem unverwirklichten Projekt „Zur Geschichte der Arbeit“ heraus entwickelte.

In the mid-1970s, Harun Farocki wrote a two-page call programmatically entitled “What Ought to Be Done,” followed by a survey addressed to potential collaborators and supporters.........
Mitte der 1970er Jahre schrieb Harun Farocki einen zweiseitigen Aufruf mit dem Titel „Was getan werden soll“, der von einer Umfrage unter potentiellen MitarbeiterInnen und UnterstützerInnen begleitet wurde.........

In 1976, Harun Farocki and Hanns Zischler directed Heiner Müller’s plays The Battle and Tractor for Theater Basel. For Farocki, this production remained his only directorial work for theater. With Heiner Müller, however, he remained in intellectual exchange. The two collaborated on the adaptation of Müller’s text The Hamletmachine for radio in 1978; for the May 1981 issue of the magazine Filmkritik, they conducted a conversation.

“I also don't know the five new federal states and, if I want to film there, I have to have a leading figure. It is the profiteer, development aid worker and missionary all in one. He breaks into the accession area from the West in army strength. The film is about such a salesman.” –– Harun Farocki, 1990/91