Loss

The work of Hans op de Beeck always breathes an atmosphere of profound emptiness. Characters, without words and totally alienated, stride through desolate landscapes and situations, out of which all hope seems to have leaked away. This is a world, seemingly lavished in the acid of everyday life, drenched in the liquid of loss. Often nothing but vague traces of faded remains remind us of human presence. In ’Loss’ a fictitious window looks out onto dark, estranged images of late-nineteenth century garden landscapes and architectural shapes, slowly shifting into the blackened ruins of an environment, scorched by World War I. The inconsolable atmosphere which speaks from the digital animation images is further reinforced by a layered soundscape of voices, surround sounds and melancholy tones, scraps from another era, from a different place.