Claerbout himself was dressed casual and not all that eccentric, with the exception of his shiny silver shoos. He made a calm and friendly impression but seemed to be in a constant battle with the power cord of his microphone. During the discussion Katerina stayed far away from the cliché questions and counted on some knowledge about the artist from the audience. They talked about the evolution of his work, this exhibition in specific, and more specific questions about certain works.

One of my favourite pieces presented here in Wiels is the bordeaux piece: In this short film he used narrative, something he normally never uses. Kristina asked why this is and I loved Claerbout’s answer: “It was a kind of trick to make sure people stay to watch. The film was shot 75 times in one day. So you think that the film is looped but actually it is a complete new film every time. If you stay and watch the whole thing you see the day going by. “To make actors play the same thing over and over again is so tiresome that it disnudes there acting. The narrative isn’t of that much importance but it makes that people stay to watch if there is a storyline”.

One of the things that Claerbout says stayed with me. “If you become an expert in yourself you get arrogant and you lose”. I don’t know if he had a specific person in mind when he said this but for a brief second the name Tuymans popped in my head.

The interview ended with a question about his cats. The artist is a ‘cat lover’ and uses one in two films of his. He loves just looking at the animal and is completely fascinated by them: “I have often ideas to make something about cats but I don’t often do it, I don’t want to become an cat artist”.