With the help of 3D computer technology, in this video David Claerbout very accurately reconstructs a photograph found on the internet.  A group of men, some on a motor scooter, take refuge under a bridge during a heavy rainstorm.  The title suggests that the men are oil company workers in Nigeria, surprised on their way home by a monsoon downpour.  Everyone waits idly for the rain to let up.  Nonetheless, someone thought it worthy to take a picture of what at first sight is a rather banal scene. 

Claerbout's quest for quiet and concentration yields stilled and poetic images.  With the techniques employed and simple camera movements, he calls into question the original photograph's meaning.  Here the impression is evoked that the group is in one way or another stranded, captive.  At other moments the image looks like an official portrait, consciously intended to expose a situation or transmit a message.

David Claerbout is fascinated by the way we observe the world and the function of our visual memory.  In his work the artist examines the borders between photography and film, between still- and moving images, between animation and digital image manipulation.  With the title and the subject of this piece, he refers to La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon, the first film by the brothers Lumière.  In contrast to these pioneers of film, Claerbout is not interested in the recording of people in motion, but rather in the play of light, reflections and working conditions in Nigeria.