David Claerbout
dal 29/5/2012 al 9/8/2012
Segnalato da
29/5/2012
David Claerbout
Parasol Unit, London
The time that remains. Dedicated to the filmic works of the Belgian artist, this exhibition features pieces he has made since the year 2000. He often depict some everyday activity or event that seems to be the subject of the work, but as time passes we as viewers face a dilemma in how to decipher the artist's intention.
Dedicated to the filmic works of Belgian artist David Claerbout, this exhibition features pieces he
has made since the year 2000. It is Claerbout's first solo show in a public London gallery.
As one of the most innovative and acclaimed artists of his generation working with moving image,
Claerbout has created a striking body of works within which the media of film and photography
appear to co-exist.
Claerbout's works often depict some everyday activity or event that seems to be the subject of the
work, but as time passes we as viewers face a dilemma in how to decipher the artist’s intention.
The works not only alter our established understanding of time and the narrative process but also
our notions of reality, illusion, and the relationship between them.
The exhibition opens with Orchestra, 2011. Viewers enter a darkened room only to find that they
themselves are the focus of attention, both of the conductor and of the audience within the work.
This reversal of the norm tends to create a moment of suspended silence.
Bordeaux Piece, 2004, at almost 14-hours long, is an epic film for which the same scene was
played by three actors and filmed repeatedly at 10-minute intervals throughout a day, from 5.30
a.m. to 10 p.m. As the daylight changes, the repetition diminishes the impact of the drama until it
becomes merely, as Claerbout says, ‘a motif lending rhythm to the real issue ... which is to give
form to duration by means of natural light’.
The final projection on the ground floor, The Algiers’ Section of a Happy Moment, 2008, is set on a
small soccer pitch on the roof of the Casbah in Algiers and reflects on what Claerbout terms ‘the
suspicious gaze’.
In the upper gallery, The Quiet Shore, 2011, shows a beach in Brittany at low tide. In the special
and fleeting moments of twilight the smooth, wet, mirror-like surface of the sand reflects the world
around it. Finally, in Sunrise, 2009, the almost magical scenes show a maid going quietly about her
chores in pre-dawn darkness. Towards the end of the film a glorious piece of music by Rachmaninov
accompanies and celebrates her journey into daylight.
David Claerbout (1969–) currently lives and works in Antwerp and Berlin. Recent years have seen
his work honoured with prizes and numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and North America. Recent
shows include a retrospective at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Belgium, and the touring exhibition
The Shape of Time, which travelled between 2007 and 2009 to the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the MIT
List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts; the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; the Morris and
Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; and the De Pont Museum for
Contemporary Art, Netherlands.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive publication, co-produced with WIELS,
Brussels, distributed by Ludion. The publication will be available from late-June 2012, and copies
may be pre-ordered at the front desk.
Image: The Quiet Shore, 2011, single channel video projection, black & white, silent, 36 min 32 sec loop, Courtesy Lilian and Billy Mauer
For more information, please contact Nicola Pomery on 020 7490 7373, at nicola@parasol-unit.org
Preview: 30 May 2012, 6.30-9 pm
Parasol unit
foundation for contemporary art 14 Wharf Road London N1 7RW
Gallery opening hours:
Monday by prior arrangement. Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–6 pm Sunday, 12–5 pm
Admission to all exhibitions is free