In the Palace
- Artist: Daria Martin
- Date: 2000
- Medium: Film, 16mm, projection, colour and sound
- Dimensions: 7min
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "In the Palace" by Daria Martin. It’s a 16mm film from 2000, the opening part of a trilogy that includes Birds (2001) and Closeup Gallery (2003). Martin created it for her MFA thesis at UCLA, shooting on a 16mm camera and releasing a limited edition of four copies – the one you’re seeing is the fourth. The film takes place inside a life‑size, twenty‑five‑foot‑high version of Alberto Giacometti’s 1932 sculpture, "The Palace at 4 A.M.", which Martin measured and re‑scaled to create a wooden, wire‑and‑glass cage. Four performers move in that space, their bodies holding classical dance poses that echo the Ballet Russes, Martha Graham’s Lamentation, and Oskar Schlemmer’s Slat Dance. The camera circles them endlessly, punctuated only when they break a pose. Sound is a collage of rain, thunder and birdsong, adding to the surreal ambience. Martin describes the work as a “low‑tech magic” that foregrounds the artificial, letting the viewer see the handmade sets and costumes, the deliberate editing, and the moments when performers smile directly at the camera. It’s a playful interrogation of sculpture, performance and film.
See it in person
In the Palace is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
