Lucien Alma, Laurent Hart

Borderland

Video game with everday "heroes"

Borderland

Borderland

netzspannung.org

Abstract

"Borderland" is based on video game duels such as "Tekken" or "Mortal Kombat". Whereas superheroes or pop icons such as the Shaolin or the pro-wrestler are usually the combatants in these games, Laurent Hart and Julien Alma use completely ordinary people as the characters in their lovingly produced, detailed CD-ROM work: old ladies, tramps, workmen, white and black teenagers – run-of-the-mill characters who square up to fight each other against the backdrop of the suburbs of Paris that have become a desolated no-man’s land. 55 characters can fight each other in 280 settings – e.g. rubbish tips, car parks and building sites. While these settings are akin to the post-apocalyptic scenarios of numerous computer games, the characters look like an ironic comment on the unchanging muscle-bound supermen that usually feature in games of this kind. At the same time, what shines through the humorous surface is a picture of society in which everyone fights everyone else – and be it little pigtailed girls fighting businessmen with briefcases.
(Tilman Baumgärtel)

Artists / Authors

Origination

France, 2001

Submission

, Apr 8, 2004

Category

Keywords