Abstract
In recent years Tacita Dean has made two films in which she trains her camera on sites in Berlin, where the British-born artist now makes her home.1 The titles of the films explicitly name their subjects, both of which are architectural structures deeply embedded in the history and consciousness of Berlin and the nation: Fernsehturm and Palast. The Fernsehturm, or Television Tower, stands nearly 400 metres tall in the centre of Alexanderplatz, the political nexus of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and a still vital urban hub. For the second film Dean takes as her subject the Palast der Republik, or Palace of the Republic, which was located not much more than a stone’s throw away, across the Marx-Engels-Forum and on an axis with the tower. Also a building project of the GDR, the Palast served as the seat of the East German parliament, but also as a site of enforced culture containing restaurants, theatres, and a bowling alley.
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© 2010 Tara McDowell
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McDowell, T. (2010). Tacita Dean’s Optics of Refusal. In: Koeck, R., Roberts, L. (eds) The City and the Moving Image. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299238_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299238_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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