Conditions of Work – hard labor in Berlin
In a society that defines status through the value of wage labor, the working hour is the measure of all things.
In our video works, still lifes documenting different working conditions play an important role
These video tableaux form the work cycle Conditions of Work. They each document an hour of work. The insights into workshops, factories, offices, laboratories, building sites and farms are based on classic painting themes in terms of choice of motif and composition. Shot in real time with a still camera and without editing, they shift the focus away from the product to the people working in space and time. In our wanderings through Berlin, we repeatedly encounter scenes of hard work that keep the structure of the city alive.
The locksmith in his workshop has set up shop in a former building for the heat supply of the former Reichsbahn. As he works on massive steel girders, he has an expansive view through the window façade of the tracks on which the regional trains now pass on their way to the car wash.
In a recycling yard, an excavator moves the rubble of city life with its grabbing arms. As dusk falls, the view is increasingly transformed into a dystopian scene.
Behind the giant snake of green district heating pipes, work is being carried out on a new track for the suburban railroad. Two extra-long excavator arms move masses of earth, against which the workers in orange overalls appear tiny.
