"Eclipse", 2001. "Latent Space", 2001. Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands curated by Henry Urbach/ "Shadows and Ghosts" 2003, Garanti Platform, Istanbul, Turkey curated by Lewis Johnson. Courtesy: Niels Thorwirth/Ebru Özseçen
Latent - present but needing particular conditions to become active, obvious or completely developed. (Cambridge English Dictionary)
Latent 4 - Interiors. The exhibition itself is a compilation of cultural clichés, but with some effort at positioning, one could bring them into a fertile dialogue. By »positioning« I mean beaming the bric-a-brac of objects amassed on the balcony of the NAI into a regular space - into a home. If we are not afraid of the late 60s/early 70s effect (something like the »smart« houses from »Barbarella« and other tongue-in-cheek SF movies), we can do it. Let's try, step by step: The interactive video setting by Ebru Özseçen (»Eclipse«, 2002) uses a delayed capture of the audience in the room, and software that processes the human silhouettes in cascades of graphic shapes and contours, presented on a dark (and therefore ecliptic) flat screen. The visuals are a modest, colourless version of the distortions carried out by Nam June Paik on some of Merce Cunningham's simplistic choreographies, and the interaction is at a basic entertainment level. But if inserted into one of the walls in your dining room (or your library), this type of fluid painting could provide a balance next to the other screen (also flat), where you are showing, in permanent alternation, MTV, your collection of cult movies on DVD and - money allowing - a mellow video by Pippilotti Rist. And they will all function as a spooky kind of dynamic decoration.
*excerpt from "Smart Houses: Past and Future", published in "Archined" on Ebru Özsecen's work "Eclipse" by Marina Van Den Bergen.
"Eclipse", Real time computer program, custom made acrylic glass screen, rear projection, webcam.
