LEFT BALANCE / RIGHT BALANCE

Wim Catrysse’s Left Balance/Right Balance (2002) is a two-channel video-installation. On the left screen we have a bird’s-eye view of a dark space with a crouching man, stripped to the waist, wearing shorts. It is as if the floor on which the man stands is continually moving—he reels constantly and tries to maintain his balance. On the right screen we see the same man, also from a bird’s-eye view. This time he is wearing a white vest and a pair of trousers. And this time, too, the floor seems unstable and the crouching man has to do his best to keep his balance in the dark space. Because of the perspective, it is as if the men confront each other without being aware of the other’s presence or as if they are ready to engage in a fight; the all-seeing viewer starts to play a voyeuristic part.

This work has been digitised in the frame of DCA Project