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A Distant Light

11’00” in loop
4K (dimensions adaptable)
Colour, sound
2024

Text: Pedro Torres
English voiceover: Graham Watling
Studio recording: La isla estudio





The relationship between light and time is one of the foundations of physics. The speed of light provides the spacetime framework for developing theories to understand reality. In A Distant Light, Pedro Torres draws inspiration from the history of a lighthouse in Barcelona, which later has become a clock tower since the 19th century. This landmark, which used to help people locate themselves in space by means of light waves, nowadays helps them find themselves in time. In the work, the artist analyses the opposites and analogies between time and light: their form, movement, linearity and circularity. And he asks the question: What is the present? A very complicated question to answer from a physical and philosophical point of view. In the text, a list of words are associated with the present and a narration tells a series of key events in the history of physics. Moments in which the notion of the present was affected or changed by new theories and discoveries. Deploying a simple eye-catching visual symbol and playing with the visual perception of the viewers, the film questions our sense of time and space.








This work was supported by the grant Beca Barcelona Crea 2023—Ajuntament de Barcelona