Harun Farocki: Parallele

These four videos by Berliner Harun Farocki at the Galerie Thaddeous Ropac explore life in pixels. Investigating the world of video games, Farocki – renowned for his work on the relationships between society, imagery and politics since the 1960s – offers a perceptive analysis of the evolution of the digital world. While never tipping over into geeky fantasy, nor into a reactionary critique, his ‘Parallèle’ sketches out a cool, almost philosophical interrogation of the mimicry that makes up these artificial worlds. Here, God is a computer programmer, supported by an army of graphic artists. Except that after 30 years of work, his creation is still a building site – behind a façade that become more and more realistic, there’s a hollow, imperfect world, as limited at a stage set.