SYRMA (video, 2 min 45, 2019) is one of nine city descriptions included in the video work CITIES (TERRITORIES & OCCUPATION) (30 min, 2019) and part of Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke’s artistic research project SAMPLE CITIES. 

The poetic narrative is an important element of city descriptions. That which cannot be photographed is written down. That which cannot be said is photographed. The text and images are in dialog with each other. The written text describes activities, circumstances, situations or relationships and hints at things that cannot be represented in the image. The photo sequences are experiments in perception, which deconstruct the filmic into its components using cinematographic means in order to construct and create potential, social, political and personal spaces. The process of de- and reconstructing using filmic means permits thinking in a paradigm shift, which is visible in the photo works as new urban potential spaces. 

The future of cities can be discerned in the manner in which we treat these urban concepts of perception in the present time. Through the present encounter, through the “encounter in becoming,” the city can be reconsidered again and again.  

Parts of the SAMPLE CITIES project: 
HIDDEN CITIES (2012, 27 min) 
CITIES (POTENTIAL SPACE) (2014, 30 min) 
SAMPLE CITIES, exhibition and publication 
CITIES (TERRITORIES & OCCUPATION) (2019, 30 min)