Rio

Abstract

Rio is the second part of a diptych, a visual essay on film, shot alongside the school board drawing of Dutch visual artist Bart Lodewijks. The third image in Rio and the subsequent image series recollect the opening of Desmet’s Mont Sainte-Victoire (2008). The textures of the wall, and of the chalk on top seem uncut and unintelligible, like a rock. The travelling shot merges the images into the turmoil of the metropolis, in the presence of a(-nother) population: camera movements blend into traffic, drawings merge with graffiti. The moving camera is part of the traffic. These drawings are graffiti. But in a different way; they create a chaos of their very own, while at the same time creating an order of their own. Here, streets are more important than houses. Walkers overcome the inhabitants. I give up looking for the drawings, but try to find my way instead. This is significant with the idea of elsewhere as well; the image of Rio does not reveal itself as readily as the image of Ronse.