Connecting people through art 

Barcelona opens a new installation by video artist David Claerbout, organized as part of the LOOP Barcelona video art festival. Video artist David Claerbout features his latest work at the MNAC, an initiative of the Fundació Han Nefkens.

Barcelona, 18 May, 2017. The Fundació Han Nefkens, in collaboration with the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), presents the latest work by prestigious video artist David Claerbout. The piece, entitled Olympia (The real time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years), appears as part of the LOOP Barcelona festival, and can be seen from May 18 on at the MNAC. The exhibition runs until 31 December, 2017.

Olympia (The real time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years) is a piece that completely breaks with conventional time schemes, lasting a thousand years. During this period, by means of a computer programme designed specifically for the production, the artist will make a 3D reconstruction in real time of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which was built for the 1936 Olympic Games.

The piece examines the decline of the object, specifically referring to this human-built stadium, while seeking to express the idea of the absence of time, a concept that is present in all this artist’s work.

Barcelona, the Olympic Games that never took place

The presentation of this piece in Barcelona is by no means gratuitous. The stadium chosen for this production is a venue that was built to host the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which were supposed to have been held in Barcelona. In the end, the Games were not given to the city of Barcelona due to the presence of the Second Republic in Spain, which was not particularly open to the political circumstances of the moment. For this reason, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Barcelona 92 Olympic Games, the Fundació Han Nefkens has chosen to bring Claerbout’s piece to the city of Barcelona.