Artworks of Leandro Erlich #2 The Classroom & The View
2018.2.20 [Tue]
This classroom depicts a room in a school now closed and abandoned, against a backdrop of Japan’s declining birthrate and regional depopulation. As viewers enter the room in front of them, they are reflected in the glass and appear like ghosts in the room on the other side. In this way, we become like the apparitions of the past returning to an abandoned classroom. As viewers no doubt enjoy the atmosphere this conjures up, they also confront a vision of the future raised by their own memories and childhood histories as well as by the various social problems with which Japan grapples today.
Erlich frequently makes installations where glass is used to separate two spaces as a visual device mixing what is real and false. This is a new work employing the technique, produced especially for the exhibition.
The Classroom
2017
Wood, window, desk, chair, door, glass, light
1220 x 550 x 430 cm
Installation view: “Leandro Erlich: Seeing and Believing,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017
Photo: Hasegawa Kenta
This artwork recreates the experience of looking out from the window at the daily life of various residents in an adjacent apartment block, a voyeuristic experience that nonetheless everyone has experienced at least once. From a mother struggling to put her child to sleep, to a couple arguing during their supper or an artist painting a nude model, the installation presents a single diorama of various aspects of the middle-class lifestyle in Buenos Aires. Watching these scenes, we feel some empathy for what takes place while also realizing that anyone who lives in a large city is not only watching others, but may also possibly in turn become the object of another person’s gaze.
Originally produced in 1997, this was Erlich’s first video installation.
The View
1997/2017
12 channel video installation, projector
Dimensions variable
approx. 10 min. each (loop)
Installation view: “Leandro Erlich: Seeing and Believing,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017
Photo: Hasegawa Kenta
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