Shopping is an everyday cultural act, taken for granted, inevitable.
Entering into the shopping world, the malls, can become Dantean
descent into hell or a redemptive last supper. This experience is
familiar to everyone and the appearance of the malls is omnipresent.
This matter-of-factness is the result of a highly complex process. The
arrangement of malls is guided by considerations of planning,
management and scientific studies: there are consulting firms,
relaunch analysts, a central organization, mall journals, and an
annual congress in Las Vegas with 6000 participants, and laboratories
that investigate what draws the customer's gaze and how a
"spontaneous" act of purchase can be incited. Farocki's film "Die
Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten" ("The Creators of Shopping Worlds")
seeks to draw a picture of this - and magically charges our everyday
images. (Antje Ehmann)

Harun Farocki Filmproduktion
Video, 2001, col., 72 min.
www.farocki-film.de