The Eternal Lesson

The raw material for an uncompleted 1939 documentary shows art students working in painting and sculpture classes as well as in museums. Many scenes were filmed several times with only slight variations. The shots have been edited into two seemingly identical films, but this is in fact not the case. While the students involved in the creative process compare their works with the models, the viewer examines the differences between the two films projected side by side. (Christoph Girardet)

"By choosing to project the two films alongside each other, Christoph Girardet echoes the subject matter of the scenes. The viewer inevitably assumes the position of the students when he tries to identify similarities and differences between the two films that result, for example, from a change in the camera position or the use of a different picture detail. The films become a sculpture, as it were, within the video installation, which have to be fathomed based on the other one, respectively. A perfect match comes to naught; the lesson cannot come to a conclusion." (Isabelle Schwarz, exhibition­flyer at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, June 27th – September 23rd 2012)