Video art pioneer exhibits in Lausanne

A series of videos of naked young women is capturing attention at the Fine Arts Museum in Lausanne. The show, entitled "Pudeurs", or modesty, is the latest work of one of the pioneers of video art in Switzerland, Jean Otth.

A series of videos of naked young women is capturing attention at the Fine Arts Museum in Lausanne. The show, entitled “Pudeurs”, or modesty, is the latest work of one of the pioneers of video art in Switzerland, Jean Otth.

Since the end of the 1960s, Otth has kept up to date with technical innovations to develop his highly original and innovative style of video art.

For “Pudeurs” he projected images on to his subjects: “During the filming, the models were able to watch what he was doing to their images on a television screen,” says curator Caroline Nicod. “They can then react, so there’s interaction between artist and model during the production process.”

Movement in the videos is minimal – sometimes just the blinking of an eye. This gives them a still life quality which is unusual in video art.

Nicod says other video artists currently have a tendency to be more realistic, to be more narrative in their approach, or to use the video as self-projection. “Otth on the other hand is using a very contemporary medium in quite a classical sense,” she added.

The exhibition ends April 2.

By Richard Dawson