Normality 1–X
Synopsis
Resistance to the political change which took place in Austria in the year 2000, even when coming from members of the alleged opposition, is repeatedly dismissed as a hysterical reaction. The claim is made that this was a "normal democratic change." This characterization obscures the fact that the protest was directed primarily at a party whose populist program is intended to mobilize authoritarian and misanthropic prejudices. Furthermore, these protests were and are intended to stop the "integration of popular racism" (Steyerl) into the social and political mainstream, which is also on the rise in countries other than Austria.What is declared normal by some and accepted as such by the majority sometimes represents a concrete threat to others. Normality 1-10, a series of short video essays, registers everyday neo-fascist violence as being an instrument of such "normalization."
© Hito Steyerl
"Normalität" entstand als Reaktion auf den 1998 verübten Sprengstoffanschlag auf das Grab von Heinz Galinski (1912-1992), dem ehemaligen Vorsitzenden des Zentralrats der Juden und der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin. Alltäglich anmutende Aufnahmen deutscher Allerweltsorte in Kombination mit der nüchternen Wiedergabe bestürzender Fakten und Ereignisse im Untertitel: Im ersten Video definiert Steyerl die Dramaturgie der gesamten Reihe, in der sie den Anstieg rassistischer und antisemitischer Gewalt in den 1990er-Jahren in den Blick nimmt.
trans.“Normality” came about as a response to the 1998 bomb attack on the grave of Heinz Galinski (1912–1992), the former chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and of the Jewish Community of Berlin. Everyday-seeming shots of unremarkable German places, combined with the sober rendering of appalling facts and events in the subtitles: in the first video Steyerl defines the dramaturgy of the entire series, in which she examines the rise of racist and antisemitic violence in the 1990s.Eugen El, Monopol, 2024-10-29 · in German · read the full text
Normality 6 (2000), one part of a 10-piece series of short video essays focused on the ‘normalisation’ of violence against marginalised groups, shows footage from a neo-Nazi rally that took place in front of the “construction site” of the current-day Holocaust memorial for Jewish victims of the Holocaust in 2000.
Mimi Howard, Another Gaze, 2019-11-11 · read the full text
Credits
Germany/Austria 2001, 19 min, Beta SP. Director: Hito Steyerl. Supported by Stefan Landorf, Jochen Becker and many others.