Unlimited - Art Basel 2024: David Claerbout - Birdcage

A joint presentation by Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Pedro Cera, Sean Kelly, Galerie Greta Meert & Esther Shipper.

Continuing the interests of earlier works, in which Claerbout shifted the principal role from foreground to background, “Birdcage” shifts the attention from the center to the periphery, from a sun-drenched, (f)estive explosion of nature, to a state of tension. In line with his ideas about anti-anthropocentrism, the glossy starling and singing thrush are given a central role, highlighting the change in aura they undergo, from an index of lightness to an expressionist portrait of fear. As the film ends, we witness the gradual exchange of the energetic qualities of violence and peace. With “Birdcage”, David Claerbout explores how memory completes our visual perception, exposing that the human subject is, in essence, time.