Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker Essay

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The metamorphosis of Duisburg-Nord from an abandoned industrial wasteland into a functional urban park has effectively achieved many of the social objectives of the IBA. While the Thyssen site was not immune to the kinds of unauthorized usage common to derelict sites the world over, since the closure of the steelworks in 1985 it had been for the most part a place devoid of human use (reference). In the minds of the local populace, the landscape was perceived as terra incognita; a decrepit postindustrial wasteland (Weilacher 105). In many ways this psychological perception of the site could be likened to that of the Zone in Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinematic masterpiece Stalker. Despite being surrounded by the decaying landscape, people could not physically occupy the space and it existed primarily in their minds as a symbol of ecological damage and economic decline (Storm 107). The re-occupation of the landscape facilitated by the Landscape Park has transformed the site’s place in the minds of the populace. It has become symbol of the region’s cultural heritage and hope for the future (Ganser 10).

In his seminal work Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama proposed that, "before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from …show more content…

With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising to find that an element of selective amnesia remains within the historical narrative at Duisburg-Nord. In his essay Large Parks: a Designer’s Perspective, George Hargreaves reveals the absence of recognition regarding the connections between the steel industry and the Nazi war machine which held Jewish slaves at the plant - many of whom died (Hargreaves 2007, 165). Moreover, there is no acknowledgement of the hostility and trauma experienced by Turkish labourers imported to work at the site during the 1970s (Beardsley 2007,

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