David Claerbout
Olympia
01 Jun - 22 Oct 2017
David Claerbout, Olympia (The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years), start March 2016
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
David Claerbout, Olympia (The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years), start March 2016
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
David Claerbout, Olympia (The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years), start March 2016
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
David Claerbout, Olympia (The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years), start March 2016
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
Two channel real-time projection, color, silent, HD animation, 1000 years
© 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich
DAVID CLAERBOUT
Olympia
The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years
1 June - 22 October 2017
Stone by stone, David Claerbout has digitally reconstructed the imposing Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Since March 2016 the monumental building is subject to its disintegration in real time. The Belgian artist precisely calculated an aging process as it would transpire over the next thousand years. This temporal dimension of the project – extending over a millennium! – exceeds the human sense of time by far.
David Claerbout’s installation Olympia is a reflection on time and perception. The large two-screen projection allows visitors to experience the indifferent and unedited flow of time. Nothing much seems to happen on a superficial level, only a closer look reveals a subtle transformation of the building and the environment. The latter is influenced by the actual weather in Berlin: David Claerbout constantly integrates current weather data and the position of the sun into his digitally rendered stadium.
The original building was constructed during the Third Reich with its claim to a thousand years of dominance. In this context, David Claerbout also understands his installation Olympia as an attempt to juxtapose the decline of an ideological construct over time with the biological timescale of nature and the life expectancy of a human being.
Biography
David Claerbout (born 1969, Kortrijk, Belgium) is one of the most innovative and acclaimed artists working in the realm of moving images today, with his oeuvre situated at the intersection of photography, film and digital technology.
He trained as a painter, but became more and more interested in the subject of time through investigations into the nature of photography and film. Fusing together the past, present and future into stunning moments of temporal elasticity, his works present profound and moving philosophical contemplations on our perception of time and reality, memory and experience, truth and fiction.
Using pixel constellations, image sequences, light, speed, speech, music, ambient sound, installation environments and the corresponding technologies, his strikingly sensual compositions elicit new modes of perceptual absorption, expectation, comprehension and memory.
He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including: Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany (2016); KINDL, Berlin, Germany (2016), Marabouparken Konsthall, Sundbybert, Sweden (2015); Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2014); Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2013); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2012); Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (2012); SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA (2011); WIELS, Brussels, Belgium (2011); De Pont museum of contemporary art, Tilburg, Netherlands (2009) and (2016); Pompidou Center, Paris, France (2007); Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2008); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2005).
His work is represented in major public collections worldwide. The collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation holds a total of eight works by the artist. The newest piece – Oil workers (from the Shell company of Nigeria) returning home from work, caught in torrential rain (2013) – was recently on view at Schaulager during the exhibition FUTURE PRESENT. Contemporary Art from Classic Modernism to the Present Day 2016.
Olympia
The real-time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years
1 June - 22 October 2017
Stone by stone, David Claerbout has digitally reconstructed the imposing Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Since March 2016 the monumental building is subject to its disintegration in real time. The Belgian artist precisely calculated an aging process as it would transpire over the next thousand years. This temporal dimension of the project – extending over a millennium! – exceeds the human sense of time by far.
David Claerbout’s installation Olympia is a reflection on time and perception. The large two-screen projection allows visitors to experience the indifferent and unedited flow of time. Nothing much seems to happen on a superficial level, only a closer look reveals a subtle transformation of the building and the environment. The latter is influenced by the actual weather in Berlin: David Claerbout constantly integrates current weather data and the position of the sun into his digitally rendered stadium.
The original building was constructed during the Third Reich with its claim to a thousand years of dominance. In this context, David Claerbout also understands his installation Olympia as an attempt to juxtapose the decline of an ideological construct over time with the biological timescale of nature and the life expectancy of a human being.
Biography
David Claerbout (born 1969, Kortrijk, Belgium) is one of the most innovative and acclaimed artists working in the realm of moving images today, with his oeuvre situated at the intersection of photography, film and digital technology.
He trained as a painter, but became more and more interested in the subject of time through investigations into the nature of photography and film. Fusing together the past, present and future into stunning moments of temporal elasticity, his works present profound and moving philosophical contemplations on our perception of time and reality, memory and experience, truth and fiction.
Using pixel constellations, image sequences, light, speed, speech, music, ambient sound, installation environments and the corresponding technologies, his strikingly sensual compositions elicit new modes of perceptual absorption, expectation, comprehension and memory.
He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including: Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany (2016); KINDL, Berlin, Germany (2016), Marabouparken Konsthall, Sundbybert, Sweden (2015); Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2014); Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2013); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2012); Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (2012); SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA (2011); WIELS, Brussels, Belgium (2011); De Pont museum of contemporary art, Tilburg, Netherlands (2009) and (2016); Pompidou Center, Paris, France (2007); Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2008); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2005).
His work is represented in major public collections worldwide. The collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation holds a total of eight works by the artist. The newest piece – Oil workers (from the Shell company of Nigeria) returning home from work, caught in torrential rain (2013) – was recently on view at Schaulager during the exhibition FUTURE PRESENT. Contemporary Art from Classic Modernism to the Present Day 2016.