The Projection of Space

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Five projected works by Belgian artist David Claerbout come to Paris' Centre Pompidou on October 2nd. Known for his process that creates moving digital images from analog still photography, he works from architectural photos of modern urban and suburban buildings, using carefully-paced pixilation and other types of manipulation to allow multiple senses of each space to slowly unfold over the course of the work. He describes the slowness with which his places take shape as a resistance to the immediacy of digital production, saying, 'In a mode of production where photographic reality is increasingly preconceived, filmic duration seems to be the last man standing from an 'analogue' past.' With that motivation in mind, his more recent work has become increasingly narrative, including one of the exhibition's highlights, the 2004 project 'Bordeaux Piece.' Shot in a villa outside the French city, the disjointed revelation of the structure through images framed around two figures evokes both the temporality of spatial experience and the manipulative potential of cinema. On view through January 7th, the exhibition travels to the MIT List Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Spring 2008 as a part of a two-year international tour.