Wim Catrysse’s films and installations aim to make the viewer aware of the act of seeing and the experiences connected with it. His video films are investigations into the relation between the body and its surroundings: often the protagonists operate within an enclosed space that seems to determine their actions or their states of mind. On the other hand, every video has its own ‘surroundings’ – a place of presentation that corresponds to the space shown in the film. The viewer thus finds himself in an extension of the projected space.
In the video work “catch-as-catch-can”, for example, we see two men who seem to be challenging each other to a fight, although they are both simultaneously struggling not to lose their balance on the revolving disc that serves them as a sparring ring. The camera films this tense conflict situation from outside of the ring, from the perspective of a viewer who is also standing on a similar disc and so rapidly loses all sense of orientation.
