Lydia Hannah

In languor, I merely wait.

Lydia Debeer, video, In languor, I merely wait.

Lydia Debeer, In languor

In languor, I merely wait. 2015

single screen video, projected on a Showtec screen of 192 x 108 cm , silent, 13’11” in loop

“langueur / languor Subtle state of amorous desire, experienced in its dearth, outside of any will-to-possess.”, Roland Barthes in A Lover's Discours

In languor, I merely wait confronts the spectator with a very peculiar viewpoint. The main character is a narrow waiting room. A failure of architecture. With its clearly very uncomfortable blue plastic chairs, windows that are placed too high it is in itself a claustrophobic, uncomfortable space. But then the light starts to change. The sunlight that penetrates the right window casts white forms on the left wall that glide through the space. So it becomes clear, when the film develops, that the room is moving. It’s stuck in a movement from one shore to the other.

"Through her films, Belgian artist Lydia Debeer researches how time and space influence one another, making use of carefully chosen settings in the public space. Her interest is predominately focused on transitional zones or intermediary spaces, places where anything and nothing seems possible. She seeks out this condition, at once both fluid and static, in her film work. This is clear to see in the film In languor, I merely wait (2016), a film she shot on a ferry in the harbour of Ghent. With her finely distilled visual language she entices the viewer to join her on a trip to a bizarre, empty platform on which it seems nothing will happen and that is going to nowhere. The viewer experiences an alienating feeling of stillness and movement at the same time. She creates a space in which to muse."

- Isabelle de Baets in H ART, 23.06.2016 (translated by Jonathan Beaton)

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