Author: Pavel Büchler
Nine Leitz Prado projectors, spherical bodies and a dimmer.
Inspired by a photograph of a total eclipse taken in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington to test Einstein's theory of relativity. He uses nine obsolete Leitz Prado projectors from 1950 to create a luminous solar system projected on the wall. Spherical objects, rubber balls and other everyday objects are placed in the projectors’ view to create the effect of several overlapping eclipses.
For Büchler, these old machines have more life and energy in them than modern day digital equipment. The use of natural light gives the projectors greater prominence and highlights the vision that each one of them provides.
Büchler is interested in the critical theory of photography which challenges our reading of the photographic images as neutral documents of reality. With Eclipse, the installation itself recalls the “expanded cinema” experiments of the seventies as well as studio images of his first photography projects in which he explores the physical parameters of the medium.