Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This work is by Laurent Grasso,
an artist who created this piece on the Spanish coast of Cartagena.
which consists of images of the ocean, apparently.
But what does it mean exactly or what is the motive behind his oeuvre and what is his oeuvre about?
Laurent Grasso is an artist who has explored the theme of fear throughout much of his oeuvre,
yet in many different ways.
In the exhibition we'll see a lot of completely different works by him,
such as another film but also a painting and a sculpture.
So he's a very versatile artist who often works around the same theme, yet does so through different media.
And here's a video.
Yes, this film is actually related to the work by Els Vanden Meersch next door.
It deals quite literally with the panopticon.
He filmed old forts alongside the Spanish coast which have been there for many centuries,
and which function as strategic observation posts to detect enemies approaching from out at sea.
These forts are still used by the Spanish army as lookout stations
with the difference being that they don't merely look out from the buildings
but that there's an additional, fully equipped arsenal of advanced surveillance technology present.
So these forts can be considered as an archaeological accumulation of different versions of the panopticon.
Now we can see a part of the forts along the Spanish coastline.
Yes, the film is composed in such a way in that he alternates between the view from the observation post
and from the opposite view, like these images here,
which represent the approaching enemy's viewpoint.
The film, thus, also refers to the camera's perspective and to how the viewer identifies with it.