Textiles and the craft of weaving attracted renewed attention in the fields of art and philosophy a few years ago. The complex structure of woven yarn became the metaphor of a global, networked world – for what other reason should Spiderman regain popularity if not as a symbol of the world wide (spider) web? Often dismissed as a folkloric craft, textiles are intricately bound up with European politics: Were the weaver uprisings in Germany not the birth of that country’s labour movement, and the collapse of the building in Savar in 2013 the tragic consequence of irresponsible ›fast fashion‹ as a result of globalisation? Set to a soundtrack of pop, the fabrics in The Grand Bizarre develop a life of their own: they climb out of suitcases, crawl over luggage conveyors, travel by ship and otherwise generally enjoy spreading themselves out. Through their colours and patterns they convey local stories at breathtaking speed to the whole world. The film sees the cinema screen partly transformed into a huge tapestry, the artwork of which contains encoded global aesthetics. Looking at textiles provides a new visual experience, defined by art historian Alois Riegl as »haptic seeing« and which film scholar Laura U. Marks recently transferred to experimental film. The experience of Mack’s films, described as meditative and psychedelic, is an expression of precisely these new visual processes. (MZ)

Film Series New Archives