Tuesday, October 21 at 6:00 PM Clemens von Wedemeyer will discuss his work with the public, particularly Metropolis. Report from China (2006), created in collaboration with Maya Schweizer.

The project was born in 2004 during a trip to Beijing and Shanghai, where the authors searched for a set for a remake of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece (Metropolis 1927). The result is a video that uses the documentary format while simultaneously subverting it—not to replace it with fiction, but to reveal the complexity of reality. The work is constructed through testimonies of construction workers from city sites, writers, and architects responsible for building the Chinese metropolises of the 21st century, alternating with original footage by Lang and images of the cities. On one hand, the authors attempt to explain the uncontrolled growth; on the other, they reflect on the responsibilities of modernity and progress, highlighting the commonalities between the urban scenario imagined by Fritz Lang and that of the new China.

Considered one of Clemens von Wedemeyer’s most representative videos, Metropolis condenses some recurring elements in his work: references to film masters, understanding the present through cinematic references, reading the city as a set, the dichotomy between utopia and dystopia, and the analysis of relationships between architectural space and social behavior, between public and private, between truth and fiction.

Metropolis is produced with the support of the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris
www.villaromana.org

With the contribution of Fondazione Cariplo and Regione Lombardia