Florian Claar

2006

Wood, Video-projectors 

3.8m x 3.2m x 1.85m

Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto / Japan

There are two distinct conceptions of time in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s 12th century epic drama Parzifal, which correspond to two kinds of logic. The first moves in a strait line. We follow and understand the events in the way the characters do, moment to moment, unsure of the outcome. The second level is the logic of rituals, a series of predetermined events based on recognizable archetypes. Parzifal, the son of Herzeloyde, who let him grow up ignorant of the world, becomes a tragic seeker who is always "between" places. The installation, consisting of a miniature chamber and two video-projections, are an architectonic equivalent to this state of constant search as it consist only of hallways, leading into new hallways. Passages from the third act of Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal" fill the room, however edited in a way, that it consists only of the transitional passages from which all motifs have been removed.