Storyteller
(Rotterdam / Otto Reuchlinweg 996)
In his soundless film Storyteller Nicolas Provost (1969, Belgium) maneuvers figurative images into an abstract form. Both figurative and abstract imagery remain distinctive. We see a mirrored urban landscape, the Las Vegas skyline, characterized by replicas of architectural and commercial icons. The landscape glides past a sea of luminous points. The abstract nightly city full of lights, so distinctive of a metropolis, also recalls a starry sky. The experience of watching is kaleidoscopic and makes the city tie in with the cosmos. With his graphic, aesthetical images Provost persuades the viewer to consider the ambiguity of beauty. His biggest challenge is to make narratives that contain visual and intellectual tensions. “The climax I am looking for,” Provost claims, “is the exact point where brain meets emotion.” The artist offers an almost astronomical explanation of the expansion of the universe. He plays with the ambivalence of Hollywood’s ‘dream machine’ and shows the dark aspects of beauty.