Philippe-Alain Michaud, le réel traversé par la fiction
To be in Venice and see the architecture of New York, to perceive in a painting by Tintoretto the birth of animated images, to look at the burlesque Cretinetti as the ancestor of montage - so many shifts, displacements, and striking telescopings that Philippe-Alain Michaud proposes in this film dedicated to him. To follow this art historian, curator of the cinema collections at the Centre Pompidou, is to go from the oriental carpet to the film, or from the first fireworks to the cinema. And everywhere the animation of the images - projections of Antony McCall, or of Paul Sharits, Column without end of Brancusi, Pasolini's Accatone - everything moves! Under the tutelage of Aby Warburg, the great art historian of the early twentieth century, precursor of iconology and image comparison, to whom Philippe-Alain Michaud was the first in France to devote an important essay, eleven images are placed on the table to describe the singular journey of this art historian.
Breaking Point
Short experimental film by Nan Wang
Dust Narrative
An audiovisual work that consists of 6593 frames of dust collected and scanned over a 2 month process by Nan Wang into an animated work combined with digital footage.
All this Roughness
An unnamed passer-by is forced to trace a circular route inside an abandoned tram station, facing loss and time. The broken walls act as a channel, transmitting fragmentary, blurred and analogical memories.
The Flood
The decision to move to Holland doesn't sound like a wise idea. Why move to a country that could be flooded at any moment? For the last 25 years, the political climate has shifted. The public debate on migration has become harsher, more heated, and polarized. What would have been considered right-wing xenophobia back then, is now considered mainstream. Populists simplify complex realities into good and evil, victims and perpetrators: ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Their rhetoric often consists of dehumanizing words and metaphors. One of these is ‘water’. In reality, water is not an immediate threat to the average Dutch person; but it is a huge threat to the thousands trying to reach the Netherlands. People trying to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Trying to survive winter on the Aegean coast in primitive tents. To them, water really is deadly.
Euphoria
A journey through the history of capitalism and greed. Populated by surreal characters and animals, a dystopian New York serves as the backdrop for a hypnotizing trip deep into the complexity of human nature at its best and worst.
VISAGE-MASQUE
Video installation (loop) EMCA 2010.
Black Mirror
A nameless drifter navigates a barren landscape punctuated by satellite dishes, radio towers and droning airplanes. Stopping periodically in anonymous hotel rooms, she makes attempts to connect to an unidentified second party.
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is an audio-visual collage of new footage and samples from Paik’s past videos, which featured many of his friends, collaborators, and public figures. It was Paik’s own way of summarizing his artistic career with video. The film installation consists of fast-paced and overlapping images that completely cover the gallery walls and ceiling—one of the most under-appreciated parts of architecture, according to Paik. With its electronic visuals and booming audio, interspersed with periods of silence, the immersive installation stands in stark contrast to the experience of its namesake.
Aadara
Combining ecological imperatives, unique land narratives, cultural folklore, ancestral agricultural traditions, and farming practices side by side using a dual-channel video projection aims to explore how ecological concerns in disparate contexts can unveil a third realm for reflection within poetic and empathetic frameworks. The video serves as tangible evidence of our collective journey as beings, extending local contexts and conveying local socio-ecological imperatives to distant settings, fostering dialogues both on and off the ground.
Cocoon
Inspired by Edogawa Ranpo’s novel, A Brute’s Love. The visual direction of this film is heavily influenced by Salvador Dalí, along with lots of other painters the director admired over the years. In many ways, this film is a reflection of personal artistic evolution.
Marcel Duchamp: The Art of the Possible
A remarkable walk through the life and work of the French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), one of the most important creators of the 20th century, revolutionary of arts, aesthetics and pop culture.
Something like Immortality
While travelling the roads of the Quebec countryside, one often sees off-beat structures and fabulous installations. These curious constructions are the work of local people who, even with no artistic training, are compelled by an almost-visceral desire to create. This film shows us the work and everyday life of three such artists. Harshly judged by their compatriots, they face the devastating reality of living on the fringe of a society that seeks to ostracize them at all cost.
Claustro
Short film in competition at the 48Hours Film Project. Sci-Fi/Mystery genre. Directed by Simone Marsella, starring Ludovica Castrichella, Dario Grasso and Federico Imola.
Stray Light
A reflection on the iconic headquarters of the Johnson Publishing Company in downtown Chicago. The eleven-story Modernist building on South Michigan Avenue was home to Jet and Ebony magazines since its design in 1971. The building was heralded as the first major downtown Chicago building designed by an African-American architect since the eighteenth century. In the case of the Johnson family and its legacy, Hartt looks to the intersection of the publisher’s ideals and values, the style and aesthetics embodied by the site and the lasting cultural impact of the magazines.
A puddle of water held in shape by my thoughts
"Water reflections are never static, its fluid form constantly plays with the light in new and totally unique ways. Trying to capture this process naturally leads to an imperfect representation. Embracing this, ‘a puddle of water held in shape by my thoughts’ plays with the materiality of the digital image with the border between digital grain and the movement of the water constantly blurring. This ongoing research project consists of clips recorded over the last two years. - During the Leaving Space exhibition (2024) the work was presented as an installation using an old LCD screen, a wash-stool and other spacial elements. The space where the screen was installed could only be observed from the outside through the glass doors but not entered.
Two Virgins
A video to accompany 19 minutes of music from John and Yoko's Two Virgins album. We see Lennon's and Ono's faces superimposed upon each other's, then John and Yoko touching each other, hugging, and kissing. They are clothed, unlike on the Two Virgins album cover.
Kusama's Self-Obliteration
A film exploration of the work and aesthetic concepts of Yayoi Kusama, painter, sculptor, and environmentalist, conceived in terms of an intense emotional experience with metaphysical overtones, an extension of my ultimate interest in a total fusion of the arts in a spirit of mutual collaboration. —Jud Yalkut
A Scenic Harvest from the Kingdom of Pain
Documentation of three Survival Research Laboratories events, 1983-1984. Meet Stu, the SRL guinea pig, and see him training to operate the 4-legged Walking Machine, see 10-barrel shotguns, hear the "Stairway to Hell".
Green
An abstract and detailed observation of a young life told through a series of observational montages. Part of the 'Technicolour' series of films from Lot 108 Productions.