Jolien & Leen
dal 19/1/2002 al 3/3/2002
Segnalato da
19/1/2002
Jolien & Leen
M&M Gallery, Bornem
...of Leen De Waele is a video-installation with a large wall-projection (1 DVD), 4 monitors on which 4 different videos are shown synchronically (4 DVD's) and a performance (only at the opening in real time, now visible on a monitor). The three parts are formally and thematically interrelated. The piece magnetizes, not only due to the use of enigmatic images, but mainly because it involves subjects such as memory, nostalgia, identification and anonymity. Subjects we are all familiar with, making the piece easily accessible to the viewer.
LEEN DE WAELE
Video art is beyond images.
JOLIEN & LEEN is a three-dimensional triptych with four monitors, a
video-projection and a performance on the opening night. The three parts
are formally and thematically interrelated. The piece magnetizes, not
only due to the use of enigmatic images, but mainly because it involves
subjects such as memory, nostalgia, identification and anonymity.
Subjects we are all familiar with, making the piece easily accessible to
the viewer.
The first part of JOLIEN & LEEN - the monitors - explores the partiality
of perception and memory. Four monitors are lined up next to each other,
showing four distinct but thematically related images. After a few
moments the images shift simultaneously, thereby giving rise to a
subsequent theme. The narrative is biased and corrupted, miming the
functioning of memory.
Although the video-projection focuses on a similar issue, partiality of
perception, it has a more conventional setup than the triptych's first
part. There's only one screen and - correspondingly - one image at a
time, not four. Contrary to the traditional use of video, every
characteristic trait of the medium is abstracted: static images shift
five times in a row, persons hardly move and the fixed position of the
camera tends to freeze the staging - the projection as a sculpture.
Jolien and Leen - the two main characters - literally spring to life in
the third and last part of the piece, the performance. Both personages
are standing close to one another in a separate room of the gallery.
Although they remain silent, the visitor can sense their presence.
Whenever he tries to approach the two girls, they start to whisper and
give a long ice-cold stare at the intruder.
The experience in real-time differs from the one generated by the same
scene in the previous part: the digital image has a meditative effect
while the performance confronts and startles the viewer.
Accessibility of JOLIEN & LEEN is not to be mistaken with
comprehensibility, its meaning is concealed and abstruse. Time passes
slowly, almost insensible. Background noises - an alarm-clock, a sigh or
sometimes a lawnmower - are dimly audible.
Silence is the main motif.
OPENING HOURS
open : thursday until sunday : 2pm until 7pm
Image: videostill 'Jolien & Leen', 2001, DVD, 5min.
copyright Leen De Waele, courtesy M&M Gallery, Bornem (B)
M&M Gallery
St Amandsesteenweg 181 / B - 2880 BORNEM / BELGIUM
+32 - (0)3 - 889 61 95