EL MUNDO --- ALSO A THIRD AVENUE PROJECT. / OPERA
"HAUNTED HOUSES"
Vacant buildings on Third Avenue
between 99th and 120th street
2 16 mm, color films , 10 mn (double projections - but with a digital transferfor one projector)
see the film here (contact me for the password)
I have been living in Spanish Harlem since 1997, a period where most of the New York city has seen massive re-development and also lots of gentrifications.
Third Avenue between 110th and 120th street has not seen much change since and house s are not only boarded up but even 'bricked up' for many decades.
The reasons are complex but real estate speculations, mismanagement and general distrust in the neighborhood are overwhelmingly to blame.
'Haunted houses" refers to vacant buildings in Spanish Harlem as mentioned in a New York Times article by a housing advocate. According to this article
"one of four low-rise residential buildings on avenues or major cross streets in East Harlem had open stores but sealed-up residential floors." This results in
thousands of lost housing unites, lost residents and lost revenues for the neighborhood. Thus, East Harlem suffers from a sense of normalcy and a lack of residential vitality.
From an aesthetic point of view this inaction offers the beautiful spectacle of a time capsule and caters to all the negative prejudices this neighborhood has suffered so much from.
From an formalist point of view it is a beautiiful cascade of images that are interrupted by the given split camera projection set up and thus rendering this articture interesting and very much alife.
16 mm, color film
see the film here (contact me for the password)
stills are coming soon
camera: Ari Taub and Rainer Ganahl
filmed: April 28, 2012
HAUNTED HOUSES - Vacant buildings on Third Avenue between 100 th and 120th street, 2012
there is a preparatory work with the title:
HAUNTED HOUSES - Vacant buildings on Third Avenue between 99th and 120th streetas filmed with a bicycle.