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Fernsehturm 2001
16mm colour anamorphic film with optical sound, 44 minutes
Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris

© the artist. Photo © Tacita Dean and Ian Fairnington

Like Banewl, Disappearance at Sea and Disappearance at Sea II, this film is shot using an anamorphic lens, which like the old Cinema-scope format, extends the frame to over double its normal size. Filmed in the revolving restaurant of the television tower in Alexanderplatz in the former eastern part of Berlin, this film documents the metamorphosis that the restaurant undergoes with the setting of the sun and the coming of night. The nature of the space shifts from being about the exterior and the view, to becoming an interior social place with the windows in the end effective mirrors. The Fernsehturm has retained its political edge despite its consumption by tourism: with the advent of reunification, the speed of the rotation was doubled so one complete turn now takes half an hour whereas before it took an hour. Most former West Berliners don't go up it but large groups from the former East still book long in advance for a table. This film is being shown for the first time in this exhibition.