Marcel Odenbach at Anton Kern

German artist Marcel Odenbach here presented two film and video installations that displayed a political fervor that has lately fallen out of favor in contemporary art. In the first, two projectors placed at either end of the room displayed different films on opposite sides of a translucent scrim. Both films were visible on either side of the screen, though one could hear the audio portion of only the closest projector. This was an interesting formal device which allowed for serendipitous conjoining of images. It added interest to what otherwise might be a rather tedious screening of two propaganda films made by the U.S. military about African-American soldiers in World War II and Vietnam.

The point in dredging up these films is clear. They are full of misinformation, patronizing remarks about "our colored soldiers" and efforts to suggest the existence of a racial harmony and equality that history denies. They reminded me of a 1950s-era U.S. Army film that I once saw about the making of the atomic bomb which entirely omitted any mention of the frightening human casualties of that experiment. Odenbach's installation was titled, perhaps accurately, Nothing to Add.

The other installation also consisted of two elements. On one side of the room a color monitor played a video whose central image consisted of a small boy in colorful African garb shining a man's shoes. This was periodically interrupted with scenes of riots and cheering crowds. On the opposite wall was projected a view of a man's feet as he walked steadily down a road. This was intercut with more images of riots and close-ups of a bloody victim.

Titled Step by Step, this work incorporated a variety of documentary clips, including footage of uprisings in South Africa, Zaire, Zambia and the American South during the Civil Rights era. The footsteps were clips from Hitchcock's film "The Man Who Knew Too Much." This work seemed to be suggesting parallels between America's racial problems and political turmoil in Africa.

The press release for this exhibition noted that Odenbach "deals with different issues that stem from his generation's recovery from postwar Germany by contextualizing them with American historical and political themes." It is a tack taken by other German artists, including, most prominently, Lothar Baumgarten. The sentiments here are unassailable -- racism and colonialism have indeed been destructive forces throughout modern history. Still, one wonders why politically oriented artists from a country beset with its own racial problems must go so far from home to find material for their polemics.

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