Fabulist!

Spanish artist José Manuel Ballester has re-painted some of the most famous paintings in the world, with one slight alteration: He has removed any sign of human life. To contemplate these settings, now devoid of people, is to consider context from a whole new angle.

This project reminds me of Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse, which contains a famous seven minute-long montage at its end of places from the film, now stripped of any people. It forces you to contemplate the passage of time, the importance (or unimportance) of human drama, the value of your surroundings. Are they just incidental, or do they deserve a more starring role than the characters themselves?

I can't read Spanish, so hell if I know if that's the point of Ballester's exhibition "Espacios Ocultos" at the Distrito Cu4tro in Madrid. But that's what it made ME think of.

(link) : (via)