Imperial Valley (Cultivated Run-Off)

Directed by Lukas Marxt

The Imperial Valley represents one of California's most important regions of industrial agriculture. The system's run-off flows through pipes, pumps and canals leading to the Salton Sea, an artificial lake that is approaching ecological as well as economic disaster. Initially appearing as nothing more than spectacular documents of agricultural monocultures, the shots become increasingly abstract. Is this an actual or artificially simulated landscape? This ambiguity is precisely the point: The Imperial Valley is becoming the "Uncanny Valley", a place that is not yet or no longer natural and thereby appears eerie. Although manmade, it is not a place for people anymore, neither ontologically nor in reality. The post-apocalypse is not a matter of the future, we are already in the thick of it. (Claudia Slanar)