5-channel video installation, colour, stereo sound
(English w. English subtitles), 98'
In cities which have been through a war or a disaster recently, or which are known to be dangerous, a professional tourist guide is hired and asked to
organize a guided tour—which is filmed—of the worst destructions, or the
most dangerous zones in the city.
War Tourist wants to see, up close, the chaos and pain of others. He travels
the world in search of ever-stronger sensations. His curiosity also acts to
keep these events at a distance. He travels to assure himself that all this
destruction and pain are well and truly somewhere else and that they don’t
threaten him at home.
The guide’s talk brings two views of the place face to face: the local view
and the outside view. In the relationship between the guide and War Tourist,
these two views meet through an arrange-ment identical to that of a supplier
filling a customer’s order. The guide shows the tourist what the tourist wants
to see, even if it means inventing an idealized, picturesque version of reality.
He expresses himself in English—the language of tourism—and, even though
they are wholly intelligible, his words are subtitled and slightly altered, in that
same language. This detail denotes the tourist-viewer’s sense of superiority
and reinforces the idea that the guide is indeed the Other: never perfectly
clear or com-prehensible.
War Tourist includes visits to the following places: Sarajevo, New Orleans,
The Suburbs of Paris, Auschwitz, Chernobyl.
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