Lost time becomes art
Marco Brambilla once calculated that his busy travel schedule meant he spent a month of the year in airports. So he decided to put that time to good use and the result can now be seen in Berne's Kunsthalle.
It is a video the Italian-film maker shot before boarding planes or while waiting to go through customs at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. The subjects are the faces of his fellow passengers.
Entitled “Sous la Terre, il y a le Ciel” (under the land there is the sky) it reveals a whole portrait gallery of facial expressions, some apprehensive, some tired and some showing joy.
By converting what he had previously written off as lost time into capturing the human tensions in an airport terminal building, Brambilla has created a work of art which is being screened in the Kunsthalle – the museum of contemporary art – until October 15.
Brambilla has also written a book on the project, “Transit”, which is published by Booth-Clibborn of London.
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