The Way Things Go
Short Films
•
31m
Directed by Peter Fischli & David Weiss • Documentary • 1987 • 30 minutes
Inside a warehouse, Swiss artists Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (1946—2012) built an enormous, precarious structure 100 feet long made out of common household items—tea kettles, tires, old shoes, balloons, wooden ramps, etc. Then, with fire, water, gravity and chemistry, they created a spectacular chain reaction, a self-destructing performance of physical interactions, chemical reactions, and precisely crafted chaos worthy of Rube Goldberg or Alfred Hitchcock.
Called "the merry pranksters of contemporary art" (The New York Times), Fischli and Weiss collaborated for 33 years, drawing worldwide notoriety and praise for taking on big questions with humble materials and a tongue-in-cheek manner. THE WAY THINGS GO, newly restored and now on Blu-ray for the first time, remains their most acclaimed and beloved work.
"Glorious, inspired and demented!"—Paper Magazine
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