Gardening
(Hasselt / Kapelstraat 44)
For Real presents two videos by Hans Op de Beeck (1969 / Belgium), Places (Gardening 2) (2004) in Maastricht en Gardening (2001) in Hasselt.
In Gardening, several minutes seem to cover centuries. This is due to a constant change of imaginary places. The animations show the fragility of nature in culture and man-made landscapes. The landscapes bloom and deteriorate at a rapid pace. Buildings appear in the landscape, fall apart in ruins and disappear in a continuous cycle.
As opposed to Places, Gardening visualises a narrative story. Accompanied by vocal Renaissance music (Thomas Tallis), Gardening tells the imaginary history of an outdoor space. This space evolves from an empty landscape into a benevolent baroque garden, from a kitschy landscape into a dilapidated no man’s land. The changing seasons keep their own pace within the changes of the landscape. Gardening tells of the impossibility of the way modern man thinks he can relate to space and time.