David Claerbout

The Belgian artist melds digital and analogue technology to create films and photographs that agitate the everyday choreography of both. This current series of three, typically long and beautifully crafted films is all about the ear - the wider implications of sound as tool in the production of time-based reality. Cinematic schmaltz becomes manipulable substance in the upstairs suite via an American Presidential inauguration-style musical event, shot in the space. Claerbout's plugging of ears and darkening of the picture is not to protect one from difficult content but to throw an obstacle between the story and our predefined responses to it. (RG)