Thierry Kuntzel

The Waves

April 19, 2018 to January 6, 2019

Thierry Kuntzel (1948-2007) is recognized as one of the leading figures in video art. His work, nourished by theoretical reflections and poetic and pictorial references, develops between writing, cinema, video and the visual arts. From the 1980s onwards, his work focused on video installations in which the viewer is completely integrated into the staging, immersed in large-format projections.

  • Contemporary art
  • Oratory Chapel

Last update: Tuesday, September 3 at 12:06 PM

The Waves - inexorably crashing waves accompanied by the sound of the sea - introduces a new aspect of interactivity. As the viewer approaches the screen, the movement of the image slows to a complete stop. As the image slows down, the sound also stops. Conversely, when the visitor steps back, the image gradually resumes its normal pace and the sound regains its rhythm. Beyond the apparent simplicity of the device, this work proves complex in the singular relationship it introduces with the viewer, between poetry and melancholy in the face of time that we choose to suspend or not.

For Thierry Kuntzel, The Waves is finally "a tribute to Virginia Woolf (to the book that bears that title), to her writing, her invention of time, her person - that life always on the brink of drowning (that was her real end), between terror and ecstasy."