White City

2018

Video
Camera: Itay Marom
Production: pong film

On 16 August 1933 Arthur Ruppin wrote the following entry in his diary: “Through Dr. Georg Landauer I travelled to Jena on August 3rd to meet Prof. Hans F. K. Günther, the founder of National-Socialist race theory. The conversation lasted two hours. Günther was most congenial but refused to accept credit for coining the Aryan-concept, and agreed with me that the Jews are not inferior but different, and that the Jewish Question has to be solved justly.”
The film revolves around the complex character of Arthur Ruppin (1876 – 1943), one of the founders of the Zionist Settlement who promoted coexistence with the Palestinians before the establishment of the state of Israel. Ruppin was also an enthusiastic researcher of the science of race, which explains his motive in paying a visit to Hans F.K. Günther (1891 – 1968), the German race researcher and eugenicist who later became a major influence on National Socialist racial thought.
The film shows Ruppin as he visits the Weissenhof Estate, a neighborhood in Stuttgart famous for its modern architecture style, and experiences flashbacks which reflect his views. The monologues and dialogues within this film are based mainly on Ruppin’s diaries.

White city, 2018, HD video, 25′, excerpt
architecture, fascism, racism

Dani Gal

Dani Gal, born in Jerusalem in 1975, lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Jerusalem, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule in Frankfurt and at Cooper Union in New York. His films and works have been shown widely, including the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, the Istanbul Biennale in 2011, New Museum New York in 2012, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, CH in 2013, the Jewish Museum New York in 2014, Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2014, Kunsthaus Zürich in 2015, Kunsthalle Wien in 2015, documenta 14 in 2017, and Centre Pompidou in 2018.

White City

White city, 2018, HD video, 25′, excerpt