Travel
(Maastricht / Eiffelgebouw)
In his work David Claerbout (1969, Belgium) examines how photography, film and observation can each in their own way visualise time. Claerbout’s captivating worlds come into being by superimposing various photos and films and by screening them at different pace. The factor of time in Claerbout’s work is subjected to law and order: the artist becomes a modern-day Chronos. The subdued, stilled images impose a sense of quiet, of meditation. Partitioned, darkened and soundproof rooms are ideal to view these works in full concentration. When entering and observing a whole new way of perception is generated.
Travel consists of one uninterrupted camera movement through a park, a dark wood somewhere in Europe and the Amazon forest, accompanied by a sound composition. Claerbout got the idea some 18 years ago when he heard a composition by Eric Breton, a therapeutic piece meant to dissolve stress and induce sleep. Claerbout was intrigued and spent a long time looking for the right form to convey what he felt. Ultimately he decided not to use film footage but computer-generated images instead. The sites, Claerbout decided, could not be specific, they had to be generic. The suggestive accompanying score adds to the work’s universal aura.