Sarah Morris 1972

In September 1972 the Munich Olympics ended in catastrophe. Black September, a terrorist group linked to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, took 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage and demanded the release of 234 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Negotiations with the Israeli authorities, who took command, were complexly botched, and the result was the massacre of all the hostages, the deaths of five terrorists and a German policeman. This much, at least, is certain. A significant part of the narrative’s cause-and-effect is clouded in speculation and contestation, and this historical lacuna is the subject of the artist’s 38-minute, 35mm film 1972 (2008). It’s interlaced, in trademark Morris style, with a chilly itemizing of the operational metropolis of today (model Munich cityscapes, airborne shots of the Olympic stadium as it is now, office spaces, blue-collar workers silently executing tasks) and nebulous archive footage, accompanied by dubby strings, ominous feedback drones and tinkling bells, courtesy of Liam Gillick.

Sarah Morris 1972

In September 1972 the Munich Olympics ended in catastrophe. Black September, a terrorist group linked to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, took 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage and demanded the release of 234 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Negotiations with the Israeli authorities, who took command, were complexly botched, and the result was the massacre of all the hostages, the deaths of five terrorists and a German policeman. This much, at least, is certain. A significant part of the narrative’s cause-and-effect is clouded in speculation and contestation, and this historical lacuna is the subject of the artist’s 38-minute, 35mm film 1972 (2008). It’s interlaced, in trademark Morris style, with a chilly itemizing of the operational metropolis of today (model Munich cityscapes, airborne shots of the Olympic stadium as it is now, office spaces, blue-collar workers silently executing tasks) and nebulous archive footage, accompanied by dubby strings, ominous feedback drones and tinkling bells, courtesy of Liam Gillick.