Na twaalf jaar weer Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

Struinend door Ubuweb Film stuitte ik op Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y van Johan Grimonprez. Ruim twaalf jaar geleden organiseerde ik een performanceavond in het Groningse cultureel studentencentrum waar ik toendertijd de muziekprogrammering verzorgde en componist David Shea bracht toen live zijn samplesoundtrack bij de film. Een mooie avond was dat.

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y” is a video film structured in a single 68-minute projection installation. The guiding visual thread of the piece is the almost exhaustive chronology of airplane highjackings in the world. The soundtrack is constituted of a fictive narrative inspired by two Don DeLillo novels-“White Noise” and “Mao II”-which, for Grimonprez, “highlight the value of the spectacular in our catastrophe culture.” (…) “Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y” blends photographic, electronic, and digital images, interspersing reportage shots, clips from science fiction films, found footage, and reconstituted scenes filmed by the artist. The work denounces the media spectacle and seeks to detect the impact of images on our feelings, our knowledge, our memory.”

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