less serious, perhaps?
Gilles Massot has out done himself, with an interactive installation or 4 projected screens in gallery 1 of PKW, and an array display of light-painted alphabets in gallery 2.
The installation here ditches the serious critique of the site of Valbelle, or Museum as institution of collective (constructed) memory, and opts for a fun and bizarre semi-virtual interaction with the projected images.Turning the aperture dial on the Bronica camera on the tripod, seems to advance the projected image, which in turn is viewable through the camera’s view finder.The interaction seems to mess with the element of time, reversing burning, or presenting a mini-stop motion clip of the artist and his doppleganger, presumably from the weaved fiction of two of him, but from different times – 2007 (the person photographing), and presumably from the past (in costumeand wig) and 2248 (in white overalls or clean suit). In a Chris Marker “La jatte” kind of way, the artist seems to be offering time travel holiday snapshots, in the town of Valbelle.
As with most sweet dreams, the exhibition is delightful and fresh, compared to the usual commercial offerings by art galleries. It is worth the travelling time.
7 of 10 stars
PKW Gallery, till Feb 16 (no link provided as there are hardly updates to PKW’s website at the time of writing)
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