Olympia + 5 years uncut grass sunrise

David Claerbout

Olympia + 5 years uncut grass sunrise, 2016

The oeuvre of David Claerbout (b. 1969, Kortrijk, Belgium) exists at the intersection of photography, film, video, 3D, digital technology, and new media. Fusing the past, present, and future into stunning temporal elasticity moments, his works present profound and moving philosophical contemplations on our perception of time and reality, memory and experience, truth, and fiction.

Olympia is a computer-generated replica of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which finds itself in a time-space devoid of human intervention and entrusted to the cycles of nature. Following the original ‘ruinenwert’ theory, in which the stadium’s decay has been pre-incorporated, Olympia invokes a cycle of creation to dissolution by the slow force of nature.

Olympia + 5 years uncut grass sunrise, is a black and white drawing, made in parallel with the Olympia video. It depicts the stadium as seen at dawn in 2021 and highlights its dissolution by slow but inevitable forces of nature. Like much of the recent practice of David Claerbout, the work questions representation and notions of truth as represented in the present digital age.

The work of David Claerbout has been subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including: Garage LAB; Mocow, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Schaulager, Basel; MNAC, Barcelona; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; KINDL, Berlin, Marabouparken Konsthall, Sundbybert, Sweden; Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany; Secession, Vienna; Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel; Parasol unit, London; SFMOMA, San Francisco; WIELS, Brussels; The De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, The Netherlands and Pompidou Center, Paris; The Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland; and The Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, among other. His work is represented in major public collections worldwide including RC Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MUHKA Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst; Antwerpen, S.M.A.K; Gent, Centre Georges Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne; Paris, De Pont museum voor hedendaagse kunst; Tilburg, Boijmans van Beuningen; Rotterdam, Mudam; Luxembourg, Hirshhorn Museum; Washington DC, Guggenheim Museum; New York, Collection François Pinault, Pinakothek der Moderne; München, Bergen Art Museum; Bergen and The Israel Museum; Jerusalem among other.