Has the idea of an “ideal world” already died out? Our speaking straightforwardly of “ideals” has become very rare. But the human longing for an ideal world does not cease, and it continues to stimulate the wellsprings of our imagination and creativity.
What is depicted in Aleksei German’s “Hard to be a God” is a chaotic dystopia. This work was conceived in 1964, but was later shelved at the scriptwriting stage by Soviet authorities facing the Prague spring in 1968 before being revived in today’s world almost twenty years after the demise of the Soviet system. Why did
the filmmaker decide to turn to the present and release this film that was perhaps intended as a harsh criticism of the system in which it was originally conceived? “I am only interested in the possibility of reconstructing the world and civilization completely from scratch” (Alexei German).
The Kyoto International Conference Center and the “tower house” private home of an architect. The “Architecture: Beyond Yesterday/Today” program features screenings of two works that depict the ideals of the time that were embedded in the design of architecture constructed in 1966 and the appearance of these structures today. A program of works by Jack Smith, who pursued a world of pure art that could not be reduced to capitalist principles with such thoroughness that it led to his own ruin. Moving image works that distill the thought of Shusaku Arakawa, who sought to free human beings from their physical and mental limitations through architectural bodies. In a world in which everything must be explained, all of these works in the “Image Forum Festival 2014 Special Feature: Utopia – Igniting dreams” consider the power of imagining impossible worlds.
