Venice in Berlin in Venice

1993, 5:56 min, color, sound

While visiting Berlin, Baldino turned on her hotel room's television to find Venice Beach, California. She recorded the television image — a long, steady shot of the beach, surf, and bathers. Later, in California, she played back the unexplained and anonymous footage directly in front of the spot it depicted. She then videotaped the scene: the original broadcast, in ghostly miniature on a hand-held TV, and, in the background, its real-world double. The juxtaposition is disquieting: the German broadcast, marker of her trip to Berlin, motivator of her trip to Venice Beach, held up against the same sunny, restful scene. The bathers within the tiny recorded image are, unbeknownst to them, back at the beach, while Baldino's videotaping presence seems to be two places at once. It is as if the intervening space and time never existed at all, but are collapsed by Baldino's act, which simultaneously restores a stray image and decenters it.

Filmed in Berlin by Phyllis Baldino. Filmed in Venice by Tom Watson.