The two-channel video work Auf Schritt und Tritt (At Every Step) arose during Marcel Odenbach’s extended stay in New York in the mid-1990s. It reflects his intensive engagement with racism in the USA, including within the gay scene.
For the video recording, he had a camera built that could film him walking from above, while a microphone embedded into the sole of his shoe recorded the sound of his steps and surrounds. Thus equipped, he moved through the historically significant 125th street of Harlem, a center of Afro-American culture and at the same time an important site for the civil rights movement.
Through Odenbach's unmistakable visual language, the camera takes are superimposed with further footage from Harlem, including of children playing or passers-by on the street as well as archival material of street protests. These are additionally combined with a black-facing scene from Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).
Digitization: Sophie Bunz
