Douglas Gordon's cutting-edge work is the stuff of fantasy

The Arts Diary

Arifa Akbar Author Biography

Arifa Akbar

Arifa Akbar is deputy literary editor and arts writer at The Independent. She has been at the paper since 2001, and has previously worked as a news reporter and arts correspondent.

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Friday 25 January 2013

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Douglas Gordon's latest film, consisting solely of traditional knife-grinders in Morocco immersed in their work in different locations of the Kasbah in Tangiers, will be unveiled to audiences at the Berlin Film Festival next month.

While the work, Sharpening Fantasy, 2012, may leave some miffed, it is very much in keeping with his offbeat oeuvre: there was the video work that captured the snake charmers of Marrakech that Gordon made four years ago and before that, the film of the French footballer, Zinedine Zidane, filmed playing a game in real time.

Having seen Zidane, I can vouch for its hypnotic power and have no doubt that knife-grinders will be just as compelling under Gordon's video eye.

Also in the Arts Diary:

Cabaret stars hit back at Simon Cowell and Gary Barlow

Tunisia's Star Wars remnants revealed at London's Tate Modern

George Orwell's classic books wing their way to Burma

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