On the occasion of the appearance of the Netherlands and Flanders as guest countries at the Frankfurt Book Fair and as part of the series "In the Städel Garden", the Städel is presenting a new work by the Belgian artist David Claerbout (*1969) from September to November 2016.
The 60-minute video "Untitled (anonymous)", developed especially for the Städel Museum, appears at first glance to be an appropriation of the popular 1967 animated film "The Jungle Book" by Wolfgang Reitherman.
Claerbout has had an elaborate remake of the drawings made for his work - with the central difference that he has stripped the familiar animals, the bear, the panther, the snake or the tiger, of their humanized nature and consequently removed any narrative thread. They now move through the jungle like conspecifics in an animal documentary, undisturbed by the narratives of humanity.
Instead of telling the story of a young boy, the video work always culminates on the hour in the last scene of the original 1967 film: the singing girl comes into the jungle to fetch water. For Claerbout, this scene becomes the starting and ending point of his loop, which structures time in the Städel Garden hour by hour via a large LED screen.
David Claerbout uses visual materials in his photographic and cinematic installations, ranging from found historical photographs to reconstructed images to film footage shot according to his stage directions. He digitally reworks the material, blurring the boundaries between photography and film. Claerbout deconstructs linear sequences of time, questioning how we tell stories with images.
(Source: Städel Museum Frankfurt)
