>1.5°C: Pyropolitics and the New World

Glutnester werden ausgedämpft, überlebende Haustiere versorgt, Care-Pakete geschnürt. Nachdem er seine Kamera auf die Los Angeles Wildfires 2025 und deren Bekämpfer gehalten hat, vermisst Marxt die bizarr verkohlte Stadtlandschaft mit eigentümlicher Ruhe – und wie in seinem bisherigen Werk wird die Natur zum politischen Panorama. Wer den abhakenden Sensations-Modus der TV-Nachrichten einmal zum Gesamtbild einer Katastrophe vervollständigt haben möchte, dem kommt diese Filmerfahrung gerade recht. Und wenn eine Filiale der Bank of America in Flammen aufgeht, kapieren vielleicht auch Trump und Konsorten: Das Leugnen der menschengemachten Erderhitzung ist am Ende. (Roman Scheiber)

In Anwesenheit von Lukas Marxt und Vanja Smiljanic (Schnitt).

The only direct commentary is the opening Michael Marder quote, which talks of our new era of “pyropolitics” and of the need to discern its manifestations and learn its language, a task that Lukas Marxt duly undertakes by way of a case study: the Los Angeles wildfires of January 2025. It begins by night with the fires already ablaze and efforts in full swing to contain them, a relentless battle of countless tiny skirmishes captured in static compositions of a precision that belies the volatile situation. Helicopters pass before horizons of smoke, firefighters infiltrate shadowy properties, twigs crackle, sirens ring out and radios buzz, although it’s the smallest, eeriest details that hit hardest, the torch passing over a swimming pool, the figure hacking away at the brush to prevent further spread, red lights flashing in the water streaming along the gutters. The two next sections function the same way, showing an emergency shelter and the smouldering streets at dawn: singed pets in little plastic chambers, truckle beds being sprayed with disinfectant, the unexpected pan that ends on a solitary chimney stack. If this is an exercise in close reading, each semantic unit indexes its own tiny universe and the world simmering beyond. (James Lattimer)

Lukas Marxt (Auswahl): FOUR BY (2008, K), PASS BY (2008, K), FIRE WALK ME HOME (2009, K), SECOND NIGHT (2010, K), RISING FALL (2011, K), TWO SKIES (2013, K), REIGN OF SILENCE (2013, K), LOW TIDE (2014, K), HIGH TIDE (2014, K), DOUBLE DAWN (2014, K), BLACK RAIN WHITE SCARS (2014, K), CAPTIVE HORIZON (2015, K), CAPE GROUND (2016, K), CIRCULAR INSCRIPTION (2016, K), IMPERIAL VALLEY (CULTIVATED RUN-OFF) (2018, K), VICTORIA (2018), RALFS FARBEN (2019), LOADING PIT (2019), IMPERIAL IRRIGATION (2020, K), LOADING PIT_REVISED (2022, K), MARINE TARGET (2022, K), VALLEY PRIDE (2023, K), AMONG THE PALMS THE BOMB, OR: LOOKING FOR REFLECTIONS IN THE TOXIC FIELD OF PLENTY (2024)