Triple-screen video installation, 20 minutes (looped), 2010
Multi-lingual with English/Spanish subtitles

In 2010, the Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain) opened an exhibition of Golden Age paintings from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

​

Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker were asked to present a video installation as a critical commentary on that exhibition. Given that the historical collection of the Städel is presented in the spectacularly contemporary Frank Gehry building of the Guggenheim, they devoted the installation to the notion of “anachronism.”

​

The work combines and alternates clips from the most cinematic moments of their Mère Folle Project (link below), with tiny details of the paintings, blown up to unrecognisable proportions. “Anachronisms” makes the historical genres of portrait, still life, domestic painting, landacape and allegory resonate with the contemporary as well as the earlier period of the late Middle Ages.

Click on the image to the right to view more images.

​

See more on the Mère Folle Project page.