EXPO Marina Pinsky at Clearing

Marina Pinsky's two-part installation at C L E A R I N G takes the police as its subject matter. It transposes a crime scene and investigation techniques, immersing viewers in the situation and encouraging them to observe.

Maybe we arrived too late? There is nobody here now. The occupier has done a disappearing act, only leaving behind stuff that is too heavy to be taken away. Like this old safe. Empty, of course.

Everything in Marina Pinsky's installation at the C L E A R I N G gallery plays with fictional trompe l'œil to create a crime mystery. Its title, "Polar", is the French word for a detective novel. A reference to Marcel Broodthaers reinforces the Belgian character of the three connecting rooms.

The walls are covered with quaint wallpaper printed with motifs depicting buildings that are symbolic of power, including the Brussels law courts, NATO headquarters, the prison in Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles and the European Parliament. In order to get as close as possible to a Brussels living space, the artist has had mouldings put back on the wall. The remains of a burnt log can be seen in the hearth. And the safe, which draws all eyes, still shows the blackened scars of an oxy-acetylene torch. The living space has become an empty space.

A Russian artist who has lived in Brussels for some years, Marina Pinsky has always been fascinated by crime mysteries, by safes, and by all the strategies of disclosure they give rise to. She had the idea for this installation after visiting the Police Museum, which is based in the former Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie barracks in Etterbeek – a neglected institution, in which every object suggests fictional tales.

On the second floor, the perspective changes. The viewer is no longer caught up in the work, but kept at a distance. Like an expert. On the wall hangs a series of photographs of a policewoman taking a child's fingerprints: hands gloved in blue latex manoeuvre someone else's ink-stained hands. Who are they? We don't know. We are left with a ritual that could go on for ever. In a loop. Pinsky subverts the fake documentary aspect of these images by a strange device installed in front of the windows, with two reels of woven braid inspired by the kind of tape the police use to seal off the scene of a crime. Art keeps its distance.

Marina Pinsky: Polar > 4/6, C L E A R I N G, Avenue Louise / Louizalaan 292, 1000 Brussels