District 33 – The Duel is an algorithmic music video installation by Joe Diebes that centers on the gentrification of the Greenpoint, Brooklyn waterfront and the role of art and artists in that process. The work’s ever-changing narrative follows Xenia (played by Christina Campanella), an artist-turned-detective with a forensic ear for sonic clues.
District 33 is a vast multi-platform narrative that centers on the gentrification of the Greenpoint, Brooklyn waterfront and the role of art and artists in that process. Xenia is an artist-turned-detective, with a forensic ear for sonic clues. Red is her arch-nemesis, a real-estate tycoon who thinks of himself as a social sculptor, carving out the zoning laws that favor the one percent of the one percent. JM is the revenant of a Brooklyn painter who drowned himself in the East River in 1906, after being evicted from his apartment on Manhattan Avenue. London runs an upscale gallery with questionable financial ties.
The Duel is one episode from District 33, though an episode of infinite duration as the montage never repeats. It focuses on the dialectical contradictions at work in gentrification, particularly the aesthetics of finance and the anti-aesthetics of artmaking. Driven by a propulsive electronic score and rhythmic speech, the performers include Christina Campanella, John Rose, Michael Chinworth, and Saori Tsukada with cinematography by Damian Calvo.
COLLABORATORS
- Performers: Christina Campanella, John Rose, Michael Chinworth, and Saori Tsukada
- Cinematography: Damian Calvo.
