A Tale of Two Cities 16 years old

In A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Jem Cohen, who for more than twenty years has been building a steadily growing archive of various city views, street scenes and portraits, has connected images from his hometown of New York and of Vienna. Increasingly, the obvious and well-known differences in the architecture and streets are neutralized; the locations – an empty stairwell here, a busy street there – exchange shape and quality. The most irritating images are those of white, lifeless faces: filmed in the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Vienna, the dead eyes of Vienna stare back, as silent witnesses, at the viewer.