Review: IN SITU

We destroy and rebuild cities every day. We strive to map every inch and connect every bit of them. We inundate them with signs, messages, sounds. Do we understand them better in the end? Do we know ourselves better? No. We just go on and hope we’ll find some answers. What if we were actively listening to the sounds and rumours of the city and make them resonate in our bodies, in our souls? What if we were looking at people in the metro, taking our partner and dancing together in the street, whispering poems in strangers’ ears? Get closer. Oh, they say you just have the right to walk here, sit down there. Well, surprise yourself. Zigzag, stop, run, slow down a little, breathe, crawl on the concrete. Find your own tempo. Look up, look at the sky, look around. Open your eyes. There is life in strangers, in giants, in machines. This is one world but you can escape from it for a few fractions of a second. Diverge from the path. Find the blank spaces. In view of the unacceptable, the shameful, do not hide yourself. Put your finger on the indifference. Do something. Celebrate humanity, do not give in insanity. There is room in the city for creation and surprise, for genuine connection with people and the environment, for you and for the others.

IN SITU is a splendid interactive film on ephemeral artistic interventions in urban spaces in Europe, an “innovative program for the web, and the mobile”. At any time, you can pause the movie to read more about an artist on the blog, check the map to watch contributions from users and discover new cities.

“IN SITU confronts the vision of these artists from different backgrounds with the input of ordinary people, philosophers, urban planners, architects, but also viewers of the film, so as to try to identify what these InSitu experiments tell on our period, our urbanity.”

IN SITU is a film directed by Antoine Viviani, and produced by Providences/Arte France. Available online in English, French and German.