Clara van Or, Elsewhere

Elsewhere or Apprentice

Clara van Or

New Media Room: 28.11.24 - 09.01.25

A grandmother who left Cambodia in the 1950s out of love for a French soul, the voice of a seer unearths the bygone stories of two ancestors. Amidst the rustle of nature and the fragments unveiled from ancient Persian and Egyptian legacies, all is whispering, bearing witness to a fleeting era, its echoes etched in the very sinews of existence. Temporal and spatial confines dissolve, unfurling as a constellation of clues waiting to be embraced.

At the crossroads of documentary, experimental, and dreamlike fiction, Elsewhere or Apprentice retraces a personal odyssey along maternal threads of heritage and dives into the meanders of collective memory.

The video becomes a medium of exploration where the artist shapes the body into a guide, venturing into the invisible, and allowing memories to seep in and vibrate. Through art objects, archives, and voices of those who wove the tapestry of transmission, the apprentice seeks to resonate with the mysteries of History. Is there an elsewhere, or far-off horizon anymore? All appears to swish in the air. Spirits lurking within the stone can be heard. Despite all that has been silenced, buried by the confines of ages, the body responds. By movement, an imprint resurfaces, inscribed deep within the cells, of what, even forgotten, still lingers.

Through its lens, a poetic vista emerges, capturing the delicate choreography of generational bequests.