"With old newsreels, photography and commercials, Campbell builds contrary tales of people, time and place, in which the picture is forever shifting depending on who is holding the camera.
ARBEIT sees Duncan Campbell's interests move to Westphalia and beyond, examining the build-up to Europe's current financial meltdown. As former head of Deutsche Bundesbank and an EU top dog, (influential German economist Hans) Tietmeyer's story continually mushrooms from the particular to the epic, taking in Germany's reunification, the introduction of the euro and the current crisis. Largely made up of black-and-white photographs, the film is held together by a narrator who speaks with the crusty, antiquated lingo of an ancient Oxford don. He is constantly struggling with his material: from the accounts of hack journalists leapfrogging 'complex procedures' in favour of 'crude caricatures', to his own tendency to let hindsight colour his descriptions. What emerges is an obscure trail of figures, economic theory and personal anecdotes, which has nonetheless led to where we are now. Whether he's making protean portraits of players or politicians, Campbell's constant is the problem of navigating the past itself."
Skye Sherwin, The Guardian
Duncan Campbell, born 1972 in Dublin, lives and works in Glasgow. He received his MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in 1998. His work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at venues including Artists Space, New York; Belfast Exposed; The Model, Sligo; Tramway, Glasgow; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Kunstverein Munich, Munich; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and MUMOK, Vienna. His films have received, amongst other awards: Tiger Award for short film, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2009; ARTE-Kurzfilmpreis, 2009; FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, 2009; Best International On Screen Award, Images Festival Toronto, 2010.
Format: HD, b&w
Running time: 40 min
Duncan Campbell
Arbeit
Irleand 2011
