On a video we see how the artist scraped paint off of a wall and collected and stored it in a pot. The other part of the artwork is a green mural consisting of transparent, broad, brushstrokes.
The connection is easily made: the green powder in the video is the pigment for the paint of the painting. A simple and clear logic that immediately suggests a deeper meaning. What happens in the video behind the picture plane is answered with what appears in the painting on the wall surface. What’s distant in time and space is directly connected to the here and now. The elusive illusionism of the video images connects directly with the tangible reality of the hand painted brushstrokes.
Besides a beautiful, conceptual structure, this work by Chaim Lute is the documentation of a personal quest. It’s only when you place yourself in the story that the images within it present themselves in their full form.
The video is recorded in a German bunker from the Second World War. This is not far from the place where the parents of the artist have their holiday home. The Jewish background of the family is also a factor that deepens the meaning of his work.
The green camouflage color of the bunker ensured it blended into the surrounding nature. Seventy years later, being fully dried and weathered, the paint allowed itself to be easily removed and processed into a pigment. With the mural which he then created, the artist brings history to life, literally by giving water to it.