Eight Bridges

Mit EIGHT BRIDGES knüpft Benning konzeptuell an eigene Klassiker wie TEN SKIES und 13 LAKES an. Aufgenommen in jeweils zehnminütigen starren Kameraeinstellungen sind acht Brücken zu sehen, deren geografische Verortung eine Rundreise durch die USA ergibt. Einmal mehr geht es um das vielschichtige Verhältnis zwischen Landschaft und menschengemachter Infrastruktur; die Auswahl der Brücken ist dabei sowohl von deren Unterschiedlichkeit geprägt als auch von persönlichen Erinnerungen Bennings. Im Fall der Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama – Schauplatz einer Polizeiattacke auf schwarze Bürgerrechtler („Bloody Sunday“, 1965) – schwingt die politische Bedeutung mit. (Lars Penning)

In Anwesenheit von James Benning.

Italian Futurism celebrated noise, machinery, speed... and fascism. James Benning’s latest film turns its attention to eight bridges scattered across the United States. These are bridges crossed by people, but above all by an unending stream of vehicles of every kind: a portrait of a country that reveres speed, thrives on noise, sanctifies private transportation and perhaps, as in the age of Futurism, echoes ideologies we believed long behind us. As in all of Benning’s work, this observational portrayal of American spaces— shot in fixed, unbroken takes—goes far beyond mere landscape contemplation. There is certainly landscape—shifting light, clouds and wind, water and reflections—paired with a soundtrack that feels incidental, yet is anything but. But beneath these surfaces lies something deeper: a look at a nation that has always embraced movement as a defining characteristic. A country crisscrossed by vast structures spanning rivers, lakes and canyons—symbols of humanity’s desire to master nature and the constant flow of people and goods, indistinguishable from one another in capitalist logic. “Look and listen,” Benning insists in his classes at CalArts. His films suggest we do the same—to perceive what lies beyond the obvious. (Gonzalo de Pedro Amatria)

James Benning (Auswahl): ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (1977), LANDSCAPE SUICIDE (1986), UTOPIA (1998), EL VALLEY CENTRO (1999), LOS (2000), SOGOBI (2002), 13 LAKES (2004), TEN SKIES (2004), ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE/27 YEARS LATER (2005), CASTING A GLANCE (2007), RR (2007), FIRE & RAIN (2009, V’09-TRAILER), ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE 2012 (2012), EASY RIDER (2012), NATURAL HISTORY (2014), MEASURING CHANGE (2016), FALL EQUINOX (2016), READERS (2017), L. COHEN (2018), MAGGIE’S FARM (2020), ON PARADISE ROAD (2020), THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2022), ALLENSWORTH (2023), BREATHLESS (2024), LITTLE BOY (2025)