Philipp Lachenmann
Space_Surrogate I (Dubai), 2000

Artist
Philipp Lachenmann

Title
Space_Surrogate I (Dubai)

Year of creation
2000

Technology and duration
video installation, 16 mm, 31:30 minutes (loop)

Year of acquisition
2010

Acquisition of the foundation

The "film" shows the hijacked "Landshut" plane in Dubai in October 1977, where it waited for 48 hours with 86 hostages on board before flying to Mogadishu. The "Landshut" was hijacked by Arab terrorists on the way from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt in 1977 and flown to Rome, Aden, Dubai and finally Mogadishu, where special forces stormed the plane. The kidnappers demanded the release of leading figures of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Space_Surrogate I (Dubai) shows the "Landshut" during its stopover in Dubai, where it stood alone on the edge of the airport for two days and waited to be refueled. With no fuel and therefore no power for communication, the hijackers were cut off from any contact with the airport authorities.

Formally, Space_Surrogate I (Dubai) is located between a still image and moving images. Viewers can believe they are watching a real movie. In fact, the half-hour film was digitally assembled from a single image (an original seven-second zoom shot from the Dubai Airport tower), which is currently appearing in a continuously modified form.

In the work I was interested in the moment of alienation that defines the area between the “natural” and “artificial” spheres. I also see Space_Surrogate I (Dubai) as a kind of "reconstruction" of the scene that I watched with wonder and gentle horror as a young boy, an experience that seemed as irrevocably lost as the footage itself. After all, it is the "inner film" , which defines the meaning of all external images. (Philip Lachenmann)