The geography of Berlin is marked by layers of its history as kingdoms and governments have shattered the city and rebuilt it in their own design. These fractures are at turns overt and subtle, but their effect is an architectural mélange and haunting beauty. Andy Graydon’s Vostok, Faretheewell is part meditation on external influences on the creative process, part portrait in passing of a city living in its own afterlife.
The film follows Yukitomo, a Japanese “touristing” in Berlin as he designs a model spaceship (Vostok) for a Korean science fiction film. Opening in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the film builds its structure in haiku-like vignettes as his creative process unfolds and is influenced by the architecture and physical texture of objects. The film is narrated by Yukitomo’s unemotional telephone voice, speaking both to producers of the Korean film and to a personal friend identified as Keiko.
Mostly shot in Mitte, a section of the city east of the Wall, the Super 8 footage traces Berlin’s historical divisions as Yukitomo plans the exterior of his design: “Like scales. Not fish scales. Snake scales… An almost invisible black.” He could be describing either the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the blocks at the Holocaust Memorial. At times, the spaceship seems like it could be an allegory for the city itself: “After its battles its scars will begin to show.”
Berlin is one of the few cities where its history of conquerors has not been completely erased by succeeding groups. As Yukitomo’s design is affected by outside influences and his frustration as the producers vacillate on what they want, cranes and scenes of new construction show a reshaping of the cityscape in an unexplained future of development. “Vostok is dead. Long live Vostok.”
_
Through Dec. 5, LMAK Projects, 139 Eldridge St., 212-255-9707.
