MUNICH.- Time is the central theme in the oeuvre of the Belgian David Claerbout, who is among the best-known video artists of his generation. In the past few years in particular, major solo exhibitions of his work have been held in Europe (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; De Pont, Tilburg) and North America (MIT, Cambridge; Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver). In his visually overwhelming works Claerbout experiments both with photographs he has found, often of a historical nature, as well as with reconstructed images and his own film material. In a new form of imagery that transcends the boundaries between the media of photography and film, he almost imperceptibly adds movement to static pictures while bringing film footage virtually to a standstill. Claerbout often focuses on unspectacular everyday occurrences lasting a few seconds or minutes which he then condenses into impressive parables about the meaning of life and the transience of time. At the same time, his technically comple