Harun Farocki, DEEP PLAY   |   12 – 30 May 2008
Harun Farocki has looked at the history of cinema for the last four decades, exploring the impact of new image technologies on the social conscience and global politics. His monumental video-installation Deep Play, exhibited in 2007 at Documenta in Kassel, was presented for the first time in Italy as part of the TekFestival, curated by qwatz with the support of the Goethe-Institut Italien.

The installation comprises twelve high-tech screens that use the most amazing technology to show how the media presents sporting events, at the same time revealing how the football business highlights the skills and performance of its players. Deep Play simultaneously analyses one of the largest media events in the last few years, the final of the 2006 world cup between France and Italy, a match seen by one and a half billion viewers around the world. The screens, which analyse the match from twelve different perspectives, juxtapose the artist’s perspective, images produced by FIFA, and 2D and 3D animation sequences, reconstructing the event from strange and unexpected angles.

Deep Play is the result of collaboration between the artist and Documenta 12 (Kassel), the Barcellona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), the DFB-Kulturstiftung in Berlin, and FIFA.

Harun Farocki, FOCUS   |   May 2008
A selection of work by the director was shown at the TekFestival.

Image: Harun Farocki, Deep Play, Fondazione Romaeuropa, 2008 | Image courtesy of Melania Comoretto