I was recently at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw and one exhibition stole our attention. Despite being in a rush, we sat for the entire duration of the film, all 29 minutes and 45 seconds of it, transfixed at the intricately designed, self-destructive sequences of tires, flames, chemicals and other paraphernalia. The film is called The Way Things Go, or in German Der Lauf der Linge and was produced way back in 1987 by Peter Fischli and David Weiss from Switzerland.
It struck me that I had seen something similar before. On return to England I realised that it was the iconic and hugely successful Honda advert called Cog, first shown in 2003. In their version the exact same chain reaction is portrayed, albeit constructed of parts of the Honda Accord car. I'm sure any Brits reading will remember the advert well.
Well, after a little research, it turns out there has been huge controversy surrounding plagiarism accusations from Fishli and Weiss, and this is no surprise on a viewing of their piece. No legal action was taken in the end, but I cannot help feeling that the enormous success of the Honda version owes as much to their Swiss predecessors as it does to their own designers.
Nevertheless, Cog is an extraordinary engineering masterpiece, and continues to amaze on each viewing. How many takes did it need to shoot the final version? 606. And that was after months of planning. See the advert in its full glory below:
The original The Way Things Go can be seen below (remember, it is half an hour long!)
Der Lauf Der Dinge (1987) from INSOC on Vimeo.
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