The Annunciation to Lucia
Hoogbrugstraat 61
Laurent Fiévet’s The Annunciation to Lucia interweaves film and painting in a layered visual dialogue. It centres on a scene from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 psychological drama Teorema, in which an elegant couple silently gaze at each other. Fiévet overlays this still composition with a montage of Renaissance annunciations, where the Archangel Gabriel announces the coming of Christ to Mary. Set to the haunting strains of Mozart’s Requiem, the images glide over one another, creating movement within the paintings.
Fiévet’s showdown between cinema and painting reveals the radical realism pursued by both Pasolini and Renaissance artists. While the latter capture the divine in nature, Pasolini dissects the spiritual emptiness of the bourgeoisie, as evidenced in the villa’s austere elegance and the couple’s impeccable appearance. Despite the constant flow of images, an emptiness persists, emphasising the futile attempt to fathom the mystery. The layering of images resists a singular reading and renders every interpretation unstable.
Thanks to Barox.Art Gallery.