Harun Farocki

1944 – 2014

9. Januar 1944 geboren in Nový Jicin (Neutitschein), gelegen in dem damals von den Deutschen annektierten Teil der Tschechoslowakei. 1966 1968 Studium an der Deutschen Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (West). 1966 Heirat mit Ursula Lefkes. 1968 Geburt der Töchter Annabel Lee und Larissa Lu. 19741984 Autor und Redakteur der Zeitschrift Filmkritik , München. 1998 – 1999Speaking about Godard / Von Godard sprechen, New York / Berlin. (Zusammen mit Kaja Silverman). 19931999 visiting professor an der University of California, Berkeley. 2001 Heirat mit Antje Ehmann. Seit 1966 über 100 Produktionen für Fernsehen oder Kino: Kinderfernsehen, Dokumentarfilme, Essayfilme, Storyfilme. Seit 1996 zahlreiche Gruppen- und Einzelausstellungen in Museen und Galerien. 2007 mit Deep Play Teilnahme an der documenta 12. Seit 2004 Gastprofessor, von 2006 – 2011 ordentlicher Professor an der Akademie für Bildende Künste, Wien. 2011 –2014 Projekt Eine Einstellung zur Arbeit, mit Antje Ehmann 30. Juli 2014 gestorben bei Berlin.

 

For HF

We regret to announce the passing of Harun Farocki on 30 July 2014. He was 70 years of age. From 1967 onwards, Harun Farocki directed more than 120 films and installations that analysed the powers of the image with an originality, a prescience and a gravitas that renewed itself, year after year, project after project. In his teaching and his essays, in journals and books and exhibitions conceived and produced with Antje Ehmann, Farocki was a powerful critic, editor, theorist and curator in his own right. Generations of artists, theorists and critics have taken Farockis films such as Inextinguishable Fire (1969) and Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1988) and installations such as Deep Play (2007) as reference points. His impact and influence on culture, within and beyond Germany, is undisputed. He was, and remains, a commanding figure of contemporary culture. Despite his numerous commitments, Farocki was always generous with his time, his ideas and his attention. Unlike many artists from the 1960s, Farocki was neither nostalgic nor bitter. He was forward-looking, youthful, humorous, restless, unpretentious, enquiring, skeptical, stylish and handsome. He loved football, a drink of beer and smoking his favourite cigarettes, with his friends from his travels with his life partner Antje Ehmann. Harun Farocki was and is, irreplaceable. We are proud to have counted ourselves among his many, many friends. We admired him and we loved him and we learnt from him, always. To say that we will miss him is an understatement that he would have appreciated.

(Kodwo Eshun)