SLOW

Comentariul curatorului:
Emerging out of the sea like a human flotsam, Karel van Laere enters the frame dragging behind him metaphors and relevant global issues as his still body skims the frame, left-to-right, across each of SLOW’s six minutes of fourteen long takes. A deceptively simple set-up and physical action is thus transformed in a brilliant performance that figuratively pulls in topics of globalisation, pollution, social self-awareness and ultimately, the transitory (existential and physical) nature of human life. As Van Laere moves in-land, his lifeless body is hauled at its own pace, drawing a straight line through its increasingly urban milieu. His oppositional presence (differing from the surroundings by speed, movement, interaction, direction, etc.), is countered by a myriad of reactions from passers-by (from indifferent looks, to playful interaction). Van Laere’s body scratches the surface of discussions on social responsibility, individuality in the midst of global overpopulation and mobility in an increasingly cluttered urban sprawl. Yet his literal, physical scraping of the ground that leaves his body in tatters, closes the film in a cycle of life that returns us to the watery element from which our molecular ancestors came. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF)