The Creators of Shopping Worlds

Shopping is an everyday cultural act; it is inevitable, taken for granted. Entering into the world of shopping - the world of shopping malls - can be a Dantean voyage into hell or a redeeming ceremony of Communion. Everyone is familiar with this experience and knows what a mall looks like. This self-evident phenomenon is, however, the result of a highly complex process.

The designing of shopping malls is overseen by an army of planners, managers and scientists: there are consultants, re-launch analysts, a central association, mall magazines. 6000 guests and laboratories attended an annual convention in Las Vegas at which questions were investigated as where the gaze of a customer falls and how a "spontaneous" purchase can be induced.

Farocki shows how mall producers look at malls when they want to find out, for example, how passers-by move, where they stop and where they reach for an article. He adds these images to the everyday ones – and gives them a magical charge.

(Antje Ehmann)

Original title Die Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten Director, scriptwriter Harun Farocki Assistant Matthias Rajmann Cinematographer Ingo Kratisch, Rosa Mercedes Editor Max Reimann Sound Ludger Blanke, Matthias Rajmann, Leo van Rooki Researcher Rob Miotke, Stefan Pethke, Matthias Rajman, Brett Simon Executive producer Thomas Lorenz Production Harun Farocki Filmproduktion, Berlin, in coproduction with SWR, NDR and WDR, in collaboration with arte TV-producer Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri (SWR), Bernd Michael Fincke (NDR), Werner Dütsch (WDR)  Format video, col. Length 72 min. Premiere Wiener Festwochen Note This film was turned into a stage production The Creators of Shopping Worlds – a quasi maoistic didactic playConception Tom Kühnel, Jürgen Kuttner Director Tom Kühnel Premiere: 09.16, 2005, Theater Basel, Basel

All Works of this Decade:

In ComparisonRespiteNothing VenturedWar at a DistanceThe Creators of the Shopping WorldsPrison Images