WORK IN PROGRESS / EN CONSTRUCCIÓN

Documenting the demolition of homes to make way for the M11 highway in East London, John Smith argues that BLIGHT “exploits the ambiguities of its material to produce new meanings and metaphors, fictionalizing reality through framing and editing strategies.” Though the houses are torn down and the residents move away, Smith also consecrates BLIGHT as an archive of visual and oral memory for the residents. Whereas BLIGHT is unambiguous in its representation of antipathy toward the destruction of a community, José Luis Guerín’s EN CONSTRUCCIóN navigates the nuanced attitudes of people affected by infrastructural changes in a Barcelona neighborhood. In long-takes of (sometimes staged) interactions and crumbling walls, Guerín and his team of Pompeu Fabra University students capture a community being buried under the promise of a better future.

Preceded by: John Smith BLIGHT 1994-96, 14 min, 16mm-to-digital. Collaboration with Jocelyn Pook.

Total running time: ca. 145 min.

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