David Claerbout

-
A man in a suit standing in a park like setting.

David Claerbout, Installation view, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2008. Images courtesy of the artist and Yvon Lambert New York and Paris.

Featured Artists
David Claerbout
Explore all artists who have exhibited at the List in our Artist Index.

This is the first museum survey exhibition of works by Belgian artist David Claerbout.

Since 1996, Claerbout has explored the boundaries and overlaps between video and still photography, blurring the line between the still and the moving image. He digitizes found photographs and then introduces moving elements, and with them, time. He also uses digital video to create mini-narratives set in buildings or urban spaces that play on the changing light and passage of time to interrogate “the substance of time.” 

Influenced by phenomenology, David Claerbout has developed a body of work that challenges our habitual perceptions, testing the limit of all forms of visual reproduction in his endeavor to transport reality. “I belong to a generation of artists that has problems with the aura of the art object, and that’s why I work in a medium, digital video, historically 

David Claerbout is designed and organized by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France where it was on view from October 2, 2007-January 7, 2008. Centre Pompidou Curator of New Media Christine Van Assche is the curator of the exhibition. The exhibition will travel to the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (May-June 2008); and to the De Pont Foundation, Tilburg, The Netherlands; and the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan in 2009. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published in two separate editions: one French and one English by JRP/Ringier. The 170 page illustrated publication was jointly produced by the Centre Pompidou, Paris with the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg. The catalogue features essays by Raymond Bellour, Françoise Parfait, Dirk Snauwaert, and Christine Van Assche.

Sponsors

Support for David Claerbout has been generously has been provided by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Switzerland; Minister for Culture, Youth and Sports, Flemish Community; Nimoy Foundation; the Council for the Arts at MIT; the Society of Friends of Belgium in America; and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Media Sponsor: Phoenix Media/Communications Group.

Images

A proof sheet with 12 small images showing scenes from the film.
A man in a suit standing in a park like setting.
A man standing inside a modern home looking out to a courtyard with a woman in the distance.
A black and white photo of 2 people standing at tall glass doors seemingly trying to enter a building.
A black and white photo of a man in suit standing at tall glass doors seemingly trying to enter a building.
A black and white photo of a woman standing at tall glass doors seemingly trying to enter a building.
A black and white photo of students in a classroom sitting at individual desks.
Students in uniform outside in a courtayard seemingly at recess.
A photo of a plane that appears to be crashing in an empty mountainside.

Events

Related Publication

David Claerbout: The Shape of Time

2008, JRPRingier

View publication

Book cover for David Claerbout: The Shape of Time featuring a dark photograph of a small pine tree surrounded by the shadows of much larger trees.

More Exhibitions