Still from The Bordeaux Piece, 2004, (detail) by David Claerbout. Courtesy the artist/ Dundee Contemporary Arts.
Jem Charleston put in the necessary time to get to grips with the work of Belgian artist David Claerbout, which is on show at Dundee Contemporary Arts until December 3 2005.
David Claerbout has exhibited in countries all over Europe and his exhibition in Dundee consists of six video installations made between 1996 and 2005. This is his first ever Scottish exhibition and sees him bring together film and photography in interesting and thought-provoking ways.
Reluctant to give much away, the show is untitled and it is highly recommended that visitors take the time to read the short information booklet provided by the gallery before tackling the show. Otherwise, they will be faced with a bewildering array of projections and television screens set against sheer darkness.
The best way to begin is by entering Gallery 1, where Shadow Piece (2005) has a room to itself. Sitting on the bench in front of this massive image, there’s just enough light to read about the exhibition and it eases you into Claerbout’s deceptive world of still and moving images.
Shadow Piece shows the interior of a public building in black and white; looking down the steps, we could feasibly be watching through a CCTV camera. Reading the opening paragraphs of the programme I became quite relaxed in the knowledge that this was a still image, only for a figure to come out of nowhere and rattle the glass doors of the building.
Still from The Bordeaux Piece, 2004, by David Claerbout. Courtesy the artist/ Dundee Contemporary Arts.
Not only is it important for visitors to read about the exhibition they must be prepared to spend time waiting for things to happen. It’s not an exhibition you can see in five minutes; it takes concentration and, as Claerbout said himself, “contemplation” to get the best out of it.
The central work in Gallery 2 is The Bordeaux Piece (2004), a lengthy film work that at 13 hours visitors will more than likely never see in its entirety.
It’s a dramatic episode between a woman and two men set in a beautiful villa just outside Bordeaux. Claerbout filmed it over and over and it plays on a constant loop so that while the dialogue remains the same, there are subtle changes in the light or weather.
In some ways it’s Impressionistic, rather like Monet painting haystacks one after the other, as Claerbout - perhaps even more subtly - records the changes of light and shadow.
Visitors are invited to choose whether they would like to wear headphones and listen to the narrative, or merely watch the film in silence. It’s probably best to do both to get a contrast between the narrative time and natural time.
Still from The Bordeaux Piece, 2004, (detail) by David Claerbout. Courtesy the artist/ Dundee Contemporary Arts.
I was interested in this idea of natural time and what Claerbout felt his purpose was in creating this piece. Did he think we were moving too fast these days?
“Well, teaching people how to slow down is not my strong point and I don’t see it as my task at all,” he told me. “What I’m trying to do is to provide the necessary silence within the image for contemplation and for re-thinking what exactly narration and story telling is. I see it as my job to use as little visual information as possible to try and provoke that.”
It is clear that Claerbout is not trying to convince us that one kind of time or narrative style is best, but instead, encouraging us to think about how they differ.
One of the most interesting pieces in the exhibition plays a trick similar to the image in Gallery 1. Kindergarten Antonio Sant’Elia, 1932 (1998) is made from an archival photograph and shows a group of children at play during their day at kindergarten.
Whilst the figures remain static, the leaves of two saplings in the photograph begin to sway in what seems like a light breeze.
Still from The Bordeaux Piece, 2004, by David Claerbout. Courtesy the artist/ Dundee Contemporary Arts.
“I’m interested in the way that photography negotiates with history and vice versa, and how it talks to contemporary people,” said Claerbout. “I often like to read an image literally and, in the case of Kindergarten, you have an image which is more than 80 years old, so when you look at it you can deduce that most of these children are probably gone.
Instead of erasing the children from the picture, he explained, he decided to focus on the other living elements: “When you analyse this image, the trees are most likely still existing. That gave me the go ahead to keep them in the picture and adapt them to suggest the death of the children and the idea of passing generations.”
“My pieces always include these background elements: wind, sunlight, shadows and trees," he added. "Essentially, they are the ones that provide history. It’s a thesis - albeit an empty thesis - that allows me to work with time.”
This is a particularly arresting piece and sums up Claerbout’s intention to encourage contemplation whilst addressing the enduring elements of natural life.
Although initially overwhelming, given time the exhibition begins to make sense and it’s a good place to stop if you fancy a quiet space and a little time to contemplate some of life’s deeper issues.
