A Walk in the Past
Why is Janet Cardiff’s piece, Alter Bahnhof still currently so well known and often talked about? This is a very important question to ask yourself while looking at art because it tells us a lot about its importance and value. To distinguish whether or not an art piece is valuable and “good art” is clearly in the eye of the beholder but we should also consider certain aspects like skill, historical importance, current relevance and the artist’s’ intentions and how effectively these come across.
At the first glance at Cardiff’s video recording of the old translation in Kassel, one might wonder why the artist chose this location and filmed it to turn it into an audio-guide artwork. After all, it is just a train station in Germany right? Well not exactly, the location has a very important historical background concerning Nazi-Germany and the Holocaust.[1] The visitor receives a headset and an iPod to play the video on and listen to the audio. In the recording we can see different areas of the train station while listening to Cardiff’s voice, telling us where to go and what to look at. The video brings the site and its historical context back to life and it is a mix of the past and the present.
It is very important to consider what exactly Janet Cardiff is aiming to tell us with this piece and how the artist herself was influenced by the topic she is speaking about. Of course historical events like Nazi-Germany will always stay relevant and be an enormous topic of discussion however, it is important for our understanding and appreciation of the piece to also look at Cardiff’s personal incentives, like heritage, roots, etc, to fully relate and sympathise with the artist and the video of the train station.
Besides this, we also researched the current relevance, the historical context of the piece and the reception of the work. Considering the fact that the video shows footage of the old train station in Kassel, a location which played a big role in the genocide of millions of Jews, it has and always will have a very big historical relevance. The artwork is a terrible reminder of the awful crimes against humanity committed between 1933 to 1945, but can still be related to many situations happening all over the world nowadays.
In the following, we will discuss and enter profoundly into each of the previously mentioned topics and elaborate in detail about each of them.
Bibliography
Balzer, David. “ Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller chat about their AGO survey” canadianart.com,
- Available from http://canadianart.ca/features/cardiff-miller-lost-in-the-memory-place/. Accessed 13 November 2017
Barker M. Jennifer “Movement That Matters Historically: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s 2012
Alter Bahnhof Video Walk”
Available from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.newschool.edu/stable/pdf/10.13110/discourse.35.2.0212.pdf . Accessed 13 November 2017
Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen “Jahresbericht 2009 der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin”
Available from
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.newschool.edu/stable/pdf/23345544.pdf
Accessed 13 November 2017
Ross, Christine. “Janet Cardiff et George Bures Miller, Alter Bahnhof Video Walk” CielVariable.ca, 2013
Available from
http://cielvariable.ca/numeros/ciel-variable-95-cyber-espace-public/janet-cardiff-et-george-bures-miller-alter-bahnhof-video-walk-christine-ross-lhistoricisation-affective-des-espaces-publics/. Accessed 13 November 2017
Saggar, Mazen. “ Janet Cardiff & Georges B. Miller” FondationLouisVuitton.com, 2013.
Available from
http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/collection/artists/janet_cardiff_georgesbmiller.html#. Accessed 13 November 2017
Wilky, Afton. “Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller//Alter Bahnhof Video Walk” aftonwilky.com, 2013
Available from
http://www.aftonwilky.com/janet-cardiff-and-george-bures-miller-alter-bahnhof-video-walk/.
Accessed 13 November 2017
Wray, John. “Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller and the power of the sound” nytimes.com, 2012.
Available from
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/magazine/janet-cardiff-george-bures-miller-and-the-power-of-sound.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all . Accessed 13 November 2017
Zarzycka Marta, Papenburg Bettina “Motion Pictures: Politics of Perception”
Available from
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/546673 . Accessed 13 November 2018
[1] “Jennifer “Movement That Matters Historically: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s 2012
Alter Bahnhof Video Walk” [journal on-line]; available from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.newschool.edu/stable/pdf/10.13110/discourse.35.2.0212.pdf ; internet: accessed 13 November 2017
