Harun Farocki (b. 1944, Nový Jicin, Czechoslovakia; d. 2014, Berlin) was an avant-garde filmmaker and video artist whose work examined the ways in which images are used to inform, instruct, persuade, and propagandize. From 1967 onward, Farocki directed more than 120 films and installations, all of which in one way or another analyzed the powers of the image and sought to illuminate how the technology of image making is used to shape public ideology. Generations of artists, theorists, and critics have taken Farocki’s works as reference points and sources of inspiration. Some of his best-known works include the films The Inextinguishable Fire (1969) and Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1988), and the installation Deep Play (2007).
From 1966 to 1968, Farocki attended the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin. After teaching posts in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Manila, Munich, and Stuttgart, he took up a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1993 to 1999. Most recently, he was a professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Farocki had numerous solo exhibitions throughout his career, including recent ones at the Neue Sächsische Galerie, Chemnitz, Germany (2015), FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art, Prague (2015), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2014), Instituto Ling, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2014), Àngels, Barcelona (2014), Kunstverein Leipzig, Germany (2014), Zona MACO Sur, Mexico City (2014), Kunstraum, Munich (2014), Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2014), Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2014), Argos Centre for Art and Media, Brussels (2013), Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany (2013), Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden (2013), Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires (2013), the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art, Israel (2013), Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Haus der Fotografie, Germany (2012), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland (2012), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011), Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland (2011), Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa (2010), Jeu de Paume, Paris (2009), the Museum of Modern Art, Mala Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2008), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo,
Norway (2007), the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, ZKM, Germany (2004), the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2003), and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2003).
