the war movie (2025)

The War Movie is an image-less video that draws on the aesthetics of classic espionage and propaganda films, as well as cinematic works of the Cold War era—without showing any images itself. At the center is a complete list of all wars from the beginning of industrial warfare in 1861 up to the year 2025. This list appears in the style of end credits: plain and without commentary.

The soundtrack consists of a heavily manipulated version of The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States of America. Through this distortion, the anthem loses its patriotic character and becomes an abstract soundscape—a muffled drone, a rumble that faintly recalls the sounds of war. The anthem is transformed into an acoustic echo of imperial violence and national self-exaltation.

The depiction of violence and terror is not simply omitted but is addressed from the outset as a conceptual and political question of imagery. This approach critically challenges common forms of visual representation. The work opposes a visual politics that aestheticizes war or renders it consumable through media representation. The War Movie formulates this refusal as a radical gesture: by showing nothing, it creates a space for reflection—on the ethics of representation, on history, and on responsibility.

The War Movie, Video, HD, b/w, sound, 2025, 67 Min.