Damnation of Faust: Charming Landscape

Dara Birnbaum was one of the first to sample TV images in her video works, which reveal how gender roles and hierarchies are perpetuated in popular culture. This video focuses on the conditions for urban man as a social and political creature, from close intimacy to major political movements. The introduction mixes images from the demolition of a playground in Manhattan, with two teenagers reflecting on their childhood. The local is juxtaposed with shots of mass demonstrations and acts of resistance – from the 1960s struggle for civil rights and peace, to the Chinese student protests in the 1980s in Tiananmen Square. Birnbaum started out as an architect and city planner. The urban space also has established structures for possible and permissible interaction.