THE OTHER SIDE

In his early work Downsbrough was already trying to generate syntax between place and meaning, language and space. ’The Other Side’ shows two aspects of the urbane surroundings: the anonymous commotion of the city centre and the intimate alienation within the flats. A street scene is followed by a long shot of a bickering man and woman, the camera keeps close after them. Their conversation is constantly drowned out by music (by the Talking Heads), meanwhile garbled words keep appearing on screen, without direct meaning (’As The’ - ’Other’- ’Here’- ’Beside’- ’There’ - ’And Place’..). The combination of text and image generates an associative game of semantics, movement and space, inciting reflective analysis and proposing various readings, inherent to the urban environment: this contradiction appears to be its essence.