First French Monograph on David Claerbout's Time-Based Images

Corinne Rondeau has authored the first French-language monograph on Belgian artist David Claerbout, published by Nicolas Chaudun. The book examines Claerbout's practice of manipulating images—both analog and digital—to fabricate time. A key early work, "Ruurlo" (1997), digitally animates leaves in a 1910 Dutch postcard, creating a realistic breeze that blurs past and present. Rondeau describes Claerbout's technique as obsessive yet invisible, producing works that evoke waiting, surprise, and disappointment. The artist abandoned painting to develop a pictorial maturity through digital media. Claerbout's work was last exhibited in November 2013 at Yvon Lambert gallery in Paris. The monograph's guiding phrase: "The past returns but remains to come."