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waterfronts, Video DVCAM, 60min, USA/A 1998
Three cameras orbit on board of a ship – crowded with tourists – the island of Manhattan. Two of them are pointed to the both watersides, the third one records the movements of water in front of the bow. Sequences of this circuit are mounted in parts of 12 minutes on one screen: The water seen from the bow takes the whole basal plane, on which the shoots of the banks move in affluent mode. The soundtrack displays the typical background noise of a tourist boat, throughout long distances the monotonous voice of a guide makes itself heard via speakers, summarizing endless superlatives of the architectural and pecuniary history of New York. It falls silent, where the views don’t offer any urban connoted views and the water of the Harlem River shows bleak brown colour. A collective fatigue seemingly spread over the whole ship is communicated via soundtrack - not until the inlet to the Hudson Bay rips the travellers audibly off the lethargic state. waterfronts perceives New York City in its position at the water and surrounded by water, an on islands und peninsulas floating hybrid between its perception as „concrete jungle“ and its real geographic location. The rubbing move between the banks refers to functional and social frictions between the territories. The soundtrack is a reference to habits of perception of urbaneness at large and of New York City in particular. The no-comment-phenomenon stands for itself..

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