Ruhr
James Benning, US/DE, 2009, video, 120’

Ruhr is not only Benning’s digital debut, but also the first feature film he has shot beyond the American borders. Yet watching a Benning film is still a lesson in looking and listening. The longer you look the more you see. The audience is presented seven static shots, varying in length from a couple of minutes to one full hour. Himself originating from a working class environment, Benning captures the industrialised landscape of the German Ruhr region. His astonishing shots are meticulously composed by balancing different mathematical variables such as angle, diagonals and symmetry. They display small changes and slightly alternating repetitions, that indicate massive structural shifts in the relation between labour and culture.