Oscar Furbacken’s “Close Studies of Rome”

Through sculpture, video films and installations Oscar Furbacken (born 1980) frequently focuses on issues relating to the uncertainty of humankind’s fragile relation to the world around us. Which habitats will remain, and which will be lost? What are the criteria on which a civilisation depends?

In “Close Studies of Rome” (7:23 min, loop) Furbacken immerses the viewer in the world of Classical Rome’s sculptures and stonework, which is populated by primordial species of lichen, mosses and chasmophytes. Here, in the cracks between nature and culture, in the gaps between now and then, Furbacken’s probing and all-seeing camera reveals the indomitable resilience and energy of life.

The video is the third film in the artist’s ongoing project “Urban Microhabitats”, which investigates scale, perception and the effects of time in the micro-landscapes that surround us.