Pietà
Rechtstraat 96
In Erzsébet Baerveldt’s video Pietà, she wrestles with her own likeness – and with mortality. She struggles to lift a heavy clay figure, and what begins as a creative act soon becomes a battle against the stubbornness of raw material. The title recalls Michelangelo’s Pietà (1499), which expresses the grief and devotion of Mary cradling Christ’s lifeless body. Yet while Mary mourns a life lost, Baerveldt grapples with something that was never alive.
The clay figure echoes the biblical account of creation in Genesis where God forms man from clay and breathes life into him. Here, that breath is absent, and the figure remains heavy, inert, and unresponsive. Baerveldt’s struggle to prop up the clay body contrasts sharply with Michelangelo’s sculpture in St Peter’s Basilica, where Mary holds her son in resigned acceptance. In this video, there is no stillness or resolution, only the bitter recognition of a creator powerless to animate her creation. Ultimately, the figure crumbles in her hands and with it the illusion of control.
Thanks to Fam. Leenders.
Loan Museum Arnhem / Collectie Gelderland.