Thomas Demand
Rain / Lluvia
December 15, 2009, 6pm–11pm
Teatro Lara
Corredera Baja de San Pablo 15
Madrid
Rain patters onto the stage in the venerated Teatro Lara in Madrid.
It takes a while to realise that no water is falling: these are raindrops animated by hand!
The film projection washes over the stage, hundreds of drops splashing onto the seamlessly wet surface. But nothing is as it seems. Simulation is the very stuff of theatre, and in the empty auditorium the pattering drops echo the sound of applause.
The artist Thomas Demand, famous for his photographs and films of meticulously detailed cardboard models of places known only as mediated images, is presenting his latest film installation “Rain / Lluvia” (2008) at Teatro Lara in Madrid on December 15, 2009.
The artist shows a 35 mm film featuring something completely common: rain. It is, however, an animation. Projected as a continous loop in a classic theatre space. What is artificial about it and what is real? Spontaneously one begins to ponder the relationship between the two.
The work was part of the installment of “Il Tempo del Postino” in Basel (2009) and premiered in Berlin at the HAU (2008).
This event has been made possible through the support of Galería Helga de Alvear in Madrid and coincides with a show of his recent works (November 27, 2009 – January 10, 2010). www.helgadealvear.com
