In Comparison

Bricks form the tangible foundation of every society. In this film, Harun Farocki observes the production of this building material in different parts of the world. Without commentary, but guided by intertitles, the film moves from traditional, collective community tasks in Burkina Faso, to high-tech, almost sterile factories in Germany and Switzerland, via experiments with innovative construction methods carried out by architecture students in India.

The film captures the patient process of drying bricks in the sun and firing them in charcoal kilns, before shifting to the automated drying chambers of Europe. Farocki places these methods side by side, not as a competition between cultures but as a comparison of systems. Where the process begins at a human scale and through physical collaboration, it ends with robots that bond bricks with extreme precision. In Comparison thus becomes an analytical portrait of the evolution of labor, craft, tradition, and time.

This film is part of Systems for Agitation: A Harun Farocki Retrospective bringing together a selection of Farocki’s films and installations, alongside a series of collaborative events. From 17 April to 24 May.