Lawrence Weiner b. 1942
Liberté et contrainte (2006)
Duration: 21'24"

LIBERTÉ ET CONTRAINTES is a video filmed and edited by Lawrence Weiner. The title refers to a statement he made in 1968 for the magazine Art News in an attempt to define his work. 1/ the artist may construct the work, 2/ the work may be fabricated, 3/ the work need not be built. Here, the artist actually builds a piece by filming a video. Lawrence Weiner himself holds the camera, standing on a boat alongside the quay of a dock called Westerdoksdijk, located north of Amsterdam. Against a background of sky and clouds, flickering shots show a ship pulley on the right and on the left the Blenheim tower, head office of Dutch lawers. Language is used as material and here it comes up on the screen as part of the image itself. Liberté et Contraintes is therefore to be seen as an extension of the artist's previous work.