Focusing on the work of the German Expressionist artist and architect Bernhard Hoetger, my film explores TET–Stadt, an unrealized urban project conceived by the German biscuit manufacturer Hermann Bahlsen. In 1917, Bahlsen proposed a massive industrial and residential development in Hannover to house the operations and employees of the Bahlsen company, in which all the buildings were based on ancient Egyptian religious and secular structures.
Hoetger, the architect on the project, built an elaborate model of the site, which was exhibited in Kunstverein Hannover in 1917 and was lost during WWII. My Black & White 16mm film was shot inside a large-scale recreation of this model based on production photographs of Hoetger’s original.
The film consists of abstract synchronised movement across this model, to create a dynamic play of light, shadow and reflection. These shots are intercut with extracts from Germanen gegen Pharonen, a propaganda film from 1939 by Anton Kutter, which compared Germans to the Egyptian pharaohs.
“TET-Stadt” looks at how histories are rewritten and altered, and how mythology and futuristic architecture intertwine. By inviting us to reflect on the power of the cultural archetype in our contemporary context, it examines the state of a social consciousness in transit between a collapsed past and utopian future.
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
