Playground— un film de Michel Banabila / Gerco de Ruijter /

De Rujiter a composé ce travail en se basant sur l'organisatrion structurelle des terrains de football américain. Il a juxtaposé des photographies aériennes de terrains, afin d'en réaliser une animation stop-motion. Les quelques 2000 photographies utilisées sont tirées des images prises par les satellites de Google Earth. Le mouvement induit par le montage révèle les structures et le quadrillage du terrain, ainsi que les différents logos des équipes sportives.

Gerco de Ruijter's most recent work is a short film called "Playground". De Ruijter (1961, Vianen, the Netherlands) based this piece on the established grid of American football fields. He assembled images taken top down above these fields and created a stop-motion movie. All the approximately 2,000 stills are framed screensave satellite pictures collected in GoogleEarth.
The stills--all of the same size--are edited in a fast sequence. In this sequence the moving picture reveals the structures and lines of the playing fields as well as the symbols of the various football teams. It creates a formal and associative visual performance.
The edit draws special attention to the variations in structures, the graphic details, and the quintessential symbols associated with America's visual culture and American football in particular.
By using this existing imagery and creating moving image sequences, De Ruijter enters a new and interesting creative phase. So far, he became well-known for his aerial (kite) photography. His work visualizes the formal structure and organization of different natural and culture-influenced landscapes.
Michel Banabila (1961, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), who is responsible for the music-score on de Ruijter's previous film CROPS, signs for the music on Playground as well. Unlike CROPS, the edit for Playground builts up to a climax. The sound starts abstract, almost hesitating. Throughout the film the music is adding more layers, giving accent to the battling symbols on the fields.

Colin Huizing, chief curator Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, May 2014