Moving Still | Still Moving : Lois Andison, William Basinski, Patrick Beaulieu, Jeffrey Blondes, Janet Cardiff & Georges Bures Miller, Caroline Cloutier, Nicolas Grenier, Chris McCaw, Andréanne Michon, Faye Mullen, Jonathan Schipper, Kurt Stallaert, Capucine Vandebrouck
Curator: Anaïs Castro
Text by Anaïs Castro
Moving Still | Still Moving starts from the premise that nothing is static and that any change bears consequences. The works included in this exhibition are an invitation to meditate on the transformations that take place around us. While Andréanne Michon’s video reminds of the profound impact of human intervention on the environment, billions of years after their disappearance Caroline Cloutier maps the placement of the stars in architectural drawings that carry the sentiment that what we see is sometimes only the representation of an anachronistic present.
Our eyes regularly fool us into believing that things are immobile. Many works included in this exhibition will undergo a physical alteration over the duration of six weeks: some will grow and others will decay. But what bring all of them together are an intelligent consideration of a world in constant mutation and the recognition of the ephemeral nature of all things.
From the roof of his Brooklyn studio on September 11, 2001, William Basinski filmed the last hour of sunlight and the clouds of smoke that plumed over lower Manhattan. The soundtrack that accompanies these tragic images, a sort of haunted iteration, changes with each repetition and eventually dissolves into complete silence. Disintegration Loops is a slow decline into a visual and aural blackout. Over the course of an hour, Basinski leaves us reflecting on the ramifications of a day that ended like any other— with a sunset, but its impact continues to resonate nearly two decades later.
A plane crash, we are told, happens quickly. Passengers might not have time to fully comprehend their tragic fate before they encounter their demise. Jonathan Schipper has slowed things down. His Model of Slow Motion Plane Crash takes place over six weeks, leaving enough time to reflect on the many things that might have gone wrong. Some changes happen abruptly: accidents or deaths for instance, but most tragedies unfold in a more subtle manner. On environmental, political and cultural levels, for instance, things often develop in silence.
The thirteen artists invited to participate to this exhibition wish to record the passage of time, they are receptive to change. Their work testifies to a world in constant flux and to the incremental movement of permutation. Some of the deepest transformations are neither audible nor visible, but they alter our world in profound ways.
