In Comparison

"Bricks are the resonating fundamentals of society. Bricks are layers of clay that sound like records, just simply too thick. Like records they appear in series, but every brick is slightly different – not just another brick in the wall. Bricks create spaces, organize social relations and store knowledge on social structures. They resonate in a way that tells us if they are good enough or not. Bricks form the fundamental sound of our societies, but we haven't learned to listen to them.

Through different traditions of brick production, Farocki's film has our eyes and ears consider them in comparison — and not in competition, not as a clash of cultures. Farocki shows us various brick production sites in their colours, movements and sounds. Brick burning, brick carrying, brick laying, bricks on bricks, no off-commentary. 20 inter-titles in 60 minutes tell us something about the temporality of working processes. The film shows us that certain production modes require their own duration, and that cultures differentiate around the time of the brick."

— Ute Holl

Script: Harun Farocki, Matthias Rajmann

Cinematographer: Ingo Kratisch

Sound: Matthias Rajmann

Editor: Meggie Schneider

Drawings: Andreas Siekmann

Collaboration: Antje Ehmann, Anand Narayan Damle, Michael Knauss, Regina Krotil, Iyamperumal Mannankatti, Mamta Murthy, Markus Nechleba, Jan Ralske, Yukara Shimizu, Isabelle Verreet