Gained in translation: Site-specificity in recent documentaries

Vera Brunner-Sung

doi:10.4324/9781315123301-8

Gained in translation: Site-specificity in recent documentaries

Vera Brunner-Sung^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Radio, Television, and Film

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter discusses the strategies used by filmmakers to document site-specific art by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Michael Heizer, Andy Goldsworthy, Anselm Kiefer, Vik Muniz, and Do Ho Suh. Applying art historian Miwon Kwon’s typology of site-specificity, it outlines approaches to phenomenological, social/institutional, and discursive practices, arguing that filmmakers may operate not solely as observers but active collaborators. Doug Pray’s eponymous documentary on Heizer’s Levitated Mass is discussed as an exception in its reimagining of the nature of the artwork’s site, and ultimately its meaning.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Documenting the Visual Arts
Publisher	Taylor and Francis
Pages	113-127
Number of pages	15
ISBN (Electronic)	9781351344432
ISBN (Print)	9781138565999
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315123301-8
State	Published - Jan 1 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Social Sciences

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Gained in translation: Site-specificity in recent documentaries

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