Stilleben
2013. Video. 1’03’’
In contradistinction to all the other genres of painting, the still life has historically been predicated on the presentation of a series of natural and artificial objects in a space confined by the gaze, a kind of cul-de-sac.
Unlike naturaleza muerta, the Spanish term for the genre which translates literally as “dead nature”, the German word Stilleben underscores the stillness of life instead of its finitude and is closer to the idea of the genre explored in this video. Space as a place in which an indifferent time passes by.
As such, the human figure has always been an overriding absence. This is true with certain provisos, given that the symbolism of this genre is, in truth, a metaphor of the fleetingness of our passing through this earth. In this sense, natural and also fabricated objects serve to represent the human.
