The Close (2021)

DAVID CLAERBOUT

Belgian visual artist David Claerbout is fascinated by the way we observe our world. In his art video The Close he explores the boundaries between film and digital image manipulation and criticises the alienation caused by their disjuncture. He shows us images of early 20th century city street life. A child is playing in the street with its friends. They are clearly fascinated by the camera. But then that film footage of flesh-and-blood people seems to get stuck as it transforms almost imperceptibly into an image of a human-like sculpture. The slow-moving song of Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine embraces the loneliness of this sculpture-become-human, offering us acoustic harmony now that we can no longer trust our eyes.

preview (c) Claerbout Studio