Open Session #3: Hosted by Viscose Journal

Viscose Journal presents a screening of Harun Farocki’s 2001 film The Creators of Shopping Worlds.  

The Creators of Shopping Worlds is an analytical study and visual essay on mall design. Set at the start of the millennium, between architect offices in Germany and a tech-convention in Las Vegas, Farocki uncovers how malls and shopping spaces are constructed to not only control movement of shoppers but shape their actual behavior. Through a combination of interviews and behind-the-scenes meetings with different planners and stake-holders, Farocki makes visible the intentions and technologies that govern retail spaces, while laying bare the sheer absurdity of their architects.  

The screening launches research inquiries around the forthcoming issue of Viscose Journal on “Retail”, which will be published in partnership with Storefront in Autumn 2023. “Retail” will collect responses to sites of shopping and urban spatial politics, from histories of vitrines and visual merchandising, to strategies of building and overcoming loss prevention systems. With special thanks to Harun Farocki GbR, this screening of The Creators of Shopping Worlds will be introduced by Viscose Journal “Retail” issue co-editor Camila Palomino.

Viscose Journal is a new journal for fashion criticism. Launched between Copenhagen and New York in 2021, the periodical published critical writing and projects by a wide range of authors from the worlds of art, fashion, literature, and academia. Through specially edited thematic issues, Viscose gives space to projects that challenge and expand the possibilities of research, practice, and critique of fashion. The forthcoming issue of Viscose Journal, on the topic of retail, is slated for publication in partnership with the Storefront for Art and Architecture in Autumn 2023. It is co-edited by Viscose Founding Editor-in-Chief Jeppe Ugelvig and New York City-based curator and writer Camila Palomino.