Klaus, vom Bruch
«Alliiertenband»

While most of Klaus vom Bruch's videotapes are rapidly assembled collages, his «Allies' Tape» builds up a structure akin to a narrative. It juxtaposes images of the destruction wrought by war with shots of the human body, while the finely differentiated sound links music by a diverse range of composers.
The original footage shows US soldiers marching into the Rhine Valley in WWII, for example. Vom Bruch interlaces black-and-white bomber-plane sequences with shots of his own face or vulnerable zones such as the pupil, the lips or the tongue. Colour portraits of tender gestures such as a hand brushing over hair are superimposed over aerial views of devastated post-war cities; this is the follow-up to the images of war machinery and destruction.