Clemens von Wedemeyer
70.001
Single-channel video (colour, sound), 16:02
70.001, is a digital reconstruction of the Monday demonstrations that filled the streets of Leipzig in October 1989. However, there are two key differences between the computer simulation of the mass movement and historic events: the crowd of demonstrators flows through a digital version of the Leipzig of today and does not disperse in the evening as people go home. Unlike people, the algorithms do not need a break, and add new protestors each day. Soon, the streets are packed as far as the eye can see with animated clones, turning the demonstration into a viral sea of generic bodies.
Clemens von Wedemeyer creates films and media installations poised between reality and fiction, reflecting power structures in social relations, history and architecture. In his “cinema about cinema,” normally hidden aspects of film production — such as the dressing of a set or the casting of actors — are incorporated in the final edit alongside scripted and improvised actions. Switching between drama and documentary, von Wedemeyer creates multiple layers of ambiguity in his work, pushing the viewer to question the conventions of theatre, film, news reportage and reality TV.