David Claerbout

Despite its hyper realistic appearance, Wildfire (meditation on fire) is not a film shot on location. Originally conceived in 2019–20 for Musea Brugge, the 24-minute single channel video projection uses 3D computer techniques and a simple camera movement to depict a spectacular wildfire in an artificially rendered landscape. Moving at a very slow pace, views of a luscious forest slowly merge into dramatic—and hypnotic—still images of destructive flames. Projected on a large-scale free-standing screen, the work seems to absorb the viewer into its hellish scenery. Biological programming, still existent in today’s living creatures dictates a reflex to stay away from fire if it cannot be contained (i.e. a wildfire). A ‘meditation on fire’ may therefore sound like an impossibility. Previous works I made, such as Sunrise (…) and Reflecting Sunset (….), included images filmed directly into the sun, looking straight at a raw 93000 lux. These works are all about the wonder of images. How can so little do so much? A video projection of the sun emits a poor few thousand lumen but will still generate a human reflex- briefly- searching protection against too much sunlight. Besides the motif of the sun, early works are animated - not by frames per second it would seem- but by the wind in trees, softly caressing the picture plane, far away from all kinds of stories and in favor of phenomena that even the blind can see, at least if we take innate memory into account. If a blind person can see the picture, it has to be because it can be seen through the nervous system. Outdated is the teaching of the five senses as our gateway to the outside world, as if it concerned a computer with enough USB ports. Originally trained in painting and drawing, David Claerbout is known for his works using photography, video, digital technology and sound. His practice revolves around the concepts of temporality and duration, images suspended in a tension between stillness and movement, as well as the experience of dilated time and memory. Claerbout says that he “sculpts in duration. The definition of duration is different from that of time: duration is not an independent state-like time, but an in-between state.” With his large-scale video-based installations, the artist makes the viewer a part of the work: whether by establishing a connection between the projected images on the screen and the audience, or by creating a spatial relationship between the screen itself and the exhibition space, or simply, by allowing a process by which “a single scene can develop into another by the presence of the spectator and a bit of time.”