The Edge of the City
30 min 48 sec, Video, 2007
The film The edge of the city (2007) shows the search for the outskirts and the encounter with the phantasm „Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico“ (ZMVM). Urban interest merges with the curiosity of a tourist in a video collage that shows a „trip through the urban (un) reality of one of the biggest cities of the world“. From a bird’s-eye view the sea of light of the mega city in the night is a magic moment. After this opening scene the film becomes a mixture of a heroic epic, a news channel program and a travel diary. Instead of hearing a typical documentary voice over the artist’s very personal comments make one aware of the construction of the narration. This suggests various stories and makes one doubt the truth of them at the same time. Members of the youth gang the „Cacos“ (thieves) talk about the rules in the streets of Neza, a place where the roads aren’t paved. „As if God forgot to come ‘round here to pave the roads,” one guy comments. The gang members’ dreams are focused on a border that is further away than the city boundary: the USA. An ostensible edge of the city is the urban highway, which runs straight for miles from Neza to Ciudad Azteka. However, behind it a gated community was being constructed at the time the film was made – with walls around it and uniformed security guards in order to dissociate oneself from the rest. In the north, a wall that was built to stop the city from growing has already been overwhelmed by new settlements. In the south traditional Christian feasts are being celebrated in modest dwellings, whereas in the rich west the skyscrapers of Santa Fé, an international business headquarter, stretch towards the horizon. Gratefully the travelers reject an offer to film a kidnapping. However, in the initial scene a man with a mask „saves“ a woman: a scene, that alludes to the cliché of the legendary Mexican toghter Santo and comments on his heroic performance in Mexican films. In suggestive scenes the storytelling is demonstrated and maintained at the same time. Presenting personal experiences of the artists, the narrative perspective shows how subjective a point of view can be but how one nevertheless tends to look out for the unreal. The relation between the supposed real and the unreal, the present and the virtual is constantly being reorganized, while differing facets of experience are demonstrated. Like a music piece The edge of the city jumps from one rhythm to another making the „report“ somehow unreal and fantastic.
30 min 48 sec, Video, 2007
The film The edge of the city (2007) shows the search for the outskirts and the encounter with the phantasm „Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico“ (ZMVM). Urban interest merges with the curiosity of a tourist in a video collage that shows a „trip through the urban (un) reality of one of the biggest cities of the world“. From a bird’s-eye view the sea of light of the mega city in the night is a magic moment. After this opening scene the film becomes a mixture of a heroic epic, a news channel program and a travel diary. Instead of hearing a typical documentary voice over the artist’s very personal comments make one aware of the construction of the narration. This suggests various stories and makes one doubt the truth of them at the same time. Members of the youth gang the „Cacos“ (thieves) talk about the rules in the streets of Neza, a place where the roads aren’t paved. „As if God forgot to come ‘round here to pave the roads,” one guy comments. The gang members’ dreams are focused on a border that is further away than the city boundary: the USA. An ostensible edge of the city is the urban highway, which runs straight for miles from Neza to Ciudad Azteka. However, behind it a gated community was being constructed at the time the film was made – with walls around it and uniformed security guards in order to dissociate oneself from the rest. In the north, a wall that was built to stop the city from growing has already been overwhelmed by new settlements. In the south traditional Christian feasts are being celebrated in modest dwellings, whereas in the rich west the skyscrapers of Santa Fé, an international business headquarter, stretch towards the horizon. Gratefully the travelers reject an offer to film a kidnapping. However, in the initial scene a man with a mask „saves“ a woman: a scene, that alludes to the cliché of the legendary Mexican toghter Santo and comments on his heroic performance in Mexican films. In suggestive scenes the storytelling is demonstrated and maintained at the same time. Presenting personal experiences of the artists, the narrative perspective shows how subjective a point of view can be but how one nevertheless tends to look out for the unreal. The relation between the supposed real and the unreal, the present and the virtual is constantly being reorganized, while differing facets of experience are demonstrated. Like a music piece The edge of the city jumps from one rhythm to another making the „report“ somehow unreal and fantastic.
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