This arts-based/practice-based research on sculptures and movie screens in European art and history looks for a dialogue between form and spirit, stillness and movement. Sculptures, often considered lifeless objects of admiration, embody something more than just their materiality—they serve as vessels of time, memory, and silent witness to human existence. From the idealized marble figures of Greek and Roman antiquity to the tormented bodies of Baroque and Gothic cathedrals, sculptures appear as beings caught between dimensions, simultaneously frozen in their crafted poses yet full of a ghostly presence. A film can explore these paradoxes as a medium of movement and perception, allowing sculptures to emerge as characters rather than artefacts, as entities that observe rather than being observed. As suggested in the book Screening Statues: Sculpture and Cinema: "Sculptures are literally brought to life on the silver screen, while living people are turned into, or trapped inside, statuary." (Jacobs, Steven Leonard, Susan Felleman, Vito Adriaensens and Lisa Colpaert. “Screening Statues: Sculpture and Cinema, 2017).

The relationship between sculptures and humans extends beyond artistic admiration; it touches on themes of possession, imprisonment, and animation. In myth and folklore, statues often harbour spirits—Pygmalion's Galatea, medieval gargoyles, or the golems of Jewish mysticism—all suggesting that sculptures are not passive but potential vessels of consciousness. Through film, colours, light, shadow, sound, and music can breathe a sense of longing into these figures, suggesting they are not only shaped by human hands but, in a way, trapped by them. They reflect our mortality and our desire to overextend it, embodying the tension between the ephemeral and the eternal. The way a camera lingers on a statue's eyes, a crack in its surface, or a hand reaching out into empty space suggests a force within, an unseen life that watches us as much as we watch it.

By framing sculptures as conscious presences, this artistic research seeks to expose the hidden narratives embedded in stone, bronze, or wood—narratives of forgotten prayers, unfinished dreams, and the weight of history. Churches and plazas become stages of silent hauntings, where statues remain locked in their rigid postures, perhaps yearning for movement or lamenting their immobility. They witness centuries of change yet remain unchanged, embodying the paradox of presence without agency. In this light, sculptures are not merely representations of life but spectral beings in their own right, both possessed and possessing, forever watching, waiting, and perhaps, in some distant moment, whispering back.

Jacobs, Steven Leonard, Susan Felleman, Vito Adriaensens and Lisa Colpaert. “Screening Statues: Sculpture and Cinema.” (2017).