Housing as a Commodity

architecture film festival in the Az W courtyard
in the event of bad weather, at the Az W Podium

a cooperation by the Az W with wonderland — platform for european architecture, frame[o]ut and the MuseumsQuartier Wien

Special guests: Nina Gschlößl, Laura Engelhardt und Gusztáv Hámos

Verborgene Städte

DE 2012, 35 mins, D: Gusztáv Hámos & Katja Pratschke, in German
Verborgene Städte (Hidden Cities) contains nine descriptions of cities in the style of filmic haikus. Each of these miniatures uses images and few words to sketch one of these (documented/fictional) cities, summarising for each a historical, social, economic, political or private aspect in a poetic narrative. The film addresses the personal urban perceptions that we call “the city”.

Home On Display

DE/CN 2014, 18 mins, D: Nina Gschlössl & Laura Engelhardt, in Chinese with English subtitles
China has been experiencing an enormous building boom over recent years, and is one of the largest consumers of building materials and labour in the world. Increasingly aristocratic-looking styles from the West are being copied for the large housing complexes of the country’s new rich. A deeply capitalist desire for affluence and progress is manifested in buildings adorned with a mishmash of quotations, with the promise of a seemingly “better life”.

Casas para Todos

DE/ES 2013, 54 mins, D: Gereon Wetzel, in Spanish with English subtitles
A documentary journey takes us through the topography of the burst real estate bubble in Spain. The film visits newly built holiday complexes that have never housed a single holidaymaker, half-finished high-rises, now derelict, and new roads leading nowhere. It poses the question: What is left and what new uses are these permanently scarred areas filled with the ruins of new buildings being put to? How are people and nature reclaiming these spaces?
A film about the visible remnants of the ‘financial crisis’. A film about human hubris, greed and gullibility.

I-wish

KR 2013, 5 mins, D: Jan Schabert
Daegu Gwangyeoksi in South Korea. Three-dimensional simulations are used to sell the dream of an apartment in a tower block complex. I-Wish is a place beyond reality, where you wear slippers, however, as if you were already in your new home. The perfect home is real, it is visible, tangible, accessible, easy to imagine, and available for purchase.