iffr film de waarneming

28th January 2016

On Sunday the 31st of January, the film ‘De Waarneming’ will premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. An intense portrait of painter Robert Zandvliet that moves through his studio and his mind. Created by Frank Scheffer.

While the artist explains what interests him in a painting, we see the practical reality: mixing paints, stretching canvas, trying out various brushes, but above all: a long and intensely focussed watching.

Painter Robert Zandvliet is one of the artists exhibiting during Snapshot of a larger order. Globally, he is one of the top artists in his generation. At the age of 45, as a mid-career artist, he has reached a point of reflection. He has held art history up to the light and is attempting to redefine himself. His depictions are becoming increasingly bare, so that only archetypal shapes remain. Zandvliet wants to ‘break free from his own deftness… in order to reach the essence of the image’. He says it on the soundtrack, while Frank Scheffer’s camera follows him around his studio.

‘De waarneming’ takes place in two internal spaces: the mind of the artist, and the place where he realises his ideas. Scheffer follows his subject closely, in order show what cannot be said. Occasionally, he zooms out to briefly show Zandvliet’s large canvases. More often, his shots are close-ups. Of hands, a mouth, the artist’s eyes emanating a crazed concentration. For that is what painting is, above all: watching.

The IFFR is showing ‘De Waarneming’ on Sunday the 31st of January, Monday the 1st and Thursday the 4th of February. The film lasts 55 minutes.