Hamlet Hovsepian

1976

Video, 00:05:00 min.
Materials: 16mm film transferred to DVD and digital file (black and white, silent)

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. S0434_3).

This untitled video shows Hovsepian walking in circles around a gigantic piece of rock. His movement seems without purpose. Several minutes pass, but nothing happens and nothing changes: there is just his almost meditative pacing around the rock. Most of Hovsepian’s films are recordings of simple, ordinary, seemingly meaningless human actions, such as yawning, scratching or thinking. His approach is raw, direct and often humorous. As such, some of the actions verge on the absurd or are presented in an exaggerated way. By focusing on the basic actions of daily life, the artist searches for an estranged identity beyond the sphere of social or political life.