Context may not be everything, but it is a hell of a lot. Marco Brambilla’s video installation for The Standard Hotel’s elevators is a real joy. You might find me just going up and down for hours sometimes. It won’t be the same, but I suggest if you can’t get there, to take you laptop to the largest staircase you can find and start climbing while watching the video below.
Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.
For about the last year and a half, a MUST SEE on any NYC Cinema Tour has been an elevator ride at The Standard Hotel in The Meatpacking District. Riding up and down with Marco Brambilla’s HeavenHellPurgatory video collage dazzles and inspires, encouraging me about all that it is still to come. The piece manages to add on to much of the greatest cinema Hollywood has offered, and make it new again, glory and damnation simultaneously reborn and in tune with your choice of destination.
I guess I haven’t been alone in hoping to find ways to apply Marco’s art to new projects. Kanye West has tapped him to launch the promo for “Power” and is it ever. It is a great cut that takes the puzzle that is Kanye and The Sistine Chapel as a starting point and leaves us hungry for so much more. I can’t help but wonder what this would be like if it went on for hours more.
Kanye West POWER by Marco Brambilla (Director’s Cut) from ARTJAIL on Vimeo.
