Le Touriste2003, video installationGregg Smith
Two curtains comprise a curved street through which the spectator passes. At different places, two short films are projected. In the first one, Smith is a tourist who gets into an argument with a street beggar in a strange town; some of the locals defend him, while others blame him. In the second projection, the same tourist sits at a café, and experiences an episode of attraction-frustration with the woman at the table beside him. The work deals with the divergence between the desire to broaden one's horizons and the fear of leaving the safety of the past.