A tryptich on power relations, representation and the long shadow cast by history
Shadow Play is a three-channel video installation, and it is the artistic outcome of a two-year investigation into the copies of Diego Velázquez’s renowned painting The Surrender of Breda, and the semi-public spaces in which these copies can be found in the city. The point of departure for this project is the idea that the context determines the meaning of a work of art. While the original, housed in Madrid’s Prado Museum, celebrates the Spanish victory during the Siege of Breda, in the Stedelijk Museum Breda the painting’s portrayal of Dutch defeat is no obstacle to its role as a centrepiece in an exhibition celebrating the grandeur of the House of Oranje-Nassau. Meanwhile, in Breda's City Hall, the canvas serves daily as a backdrop for countless wedding photographs.
The video installation presents the various versions of the painting side by side, with a particular focus on the scenes that unfold around and in front of them. For instance, in the museum, conservators carefully hang Kees Maks’ 1903 canvas into place, while in the city hall, students from the St. Joost School of Art & Design stage a 1970s squatter protest in front of Fernando Coll’s 1931 copy. At the Prado, Dutch diplomats pose before the 1634 original, and at the military academy, military cadets stand to attention in front of André-Julien Prévost’s 1872 painting.
Artist Roel Meelkop composed a soundscape for the videos that accentuates or distorts the acoustics of the various filming locations, thereby emphasizing the distance between audience and the image.
Shadow Play blurs the lines between past and present, observer and observed, and invites new interpretations of Velázquez’s centuries-old tableau.
