Concrete, Rio de Janeiro 2012, film still, © Cristián Silva-Avária
Electrician, Johannesburg 2014, film still, © Amy van Houten

Exhibition

Labour in a Single Shot

Fri, Feb 27–Mon, Apr 6, 2015
Fri, Feb 27, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Feb 28, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Mar 1, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Mar 2, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Wed, Mar 4, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Thu, Mar 5, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Fri, Mar 6, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Mar 7, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Mar 8, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Mar 9, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Wed, Mar 11, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Thu, Mar 12, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Fri, Mar 13, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Mar 14, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Mar 15, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Mar 16, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Wed, Mar 18, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Thu, Mar 19, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Fri, Mar 20, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Mar 21, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Mar 22, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Mar 23, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Wed, Mar 25, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Thu, Mar 26, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Fri, Mar 27, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Mar 28, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Mar 29, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Mar 30, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Wed, Apr 1, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Thu, Apr 2, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Fri, Apr 3, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sat, Apr 4, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Sun, Apr 5, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Mon, Apr 6, 2015
Wed – Mon and on holidays, 11 am – 7 pm
Free admission
Admission: 6€/4€
Mon + under 16 years free admission
Free guided tours for schools, on request:
Concrete, Rio de Janeiro 2012, film still, © Cristián Silva-Avária

The first camera in the history of cinema was aimed at a factory. In a single take of around 45 seconds, the film by the Lumière brothers shows men and women leaving the Lumière factory in Lyon. Harun Farocki's "Eine Einstellung zur Arbeit" (Labour in a Single Shot) grew out of his response to this first film. Jointly with filmmakers in fifteen cities on five continents, Farocki and Antje Ehmann undertook a three-year exploration of the notion of work in today's world. Inspired by the form of the Lumière film, they set themselves strict limitations: the films to be created were to be no longer than two minutes in length, they had to be about work, and they could not contain a single cut.

The project “Labour in a Single Shot,” which was developed in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, tackles the invisibility of work with an entire encyclopedia of global labor conditions in the 21st century. Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann drew up strict formal guidelines for the workshop films, based on the film shot outside the Lumière factory. No film may be any longer than two minutes. Each must be about work. No edits are allowed. In the installation at HKW these film miniatures find a spatial form. When the moving images are played side by side, it is possible to spin the finest of connecting threads between them, while also highlighting fractures and differences. The conceptual setting was created by the architecture bureau Kuehn Malvezzi. The pictograms of the artist duo Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann offer deeper background information on the 15 production locations.