Moving_image #23
Browse information about screenings in the cycle "Moving_image, A Contemporary ABC" from October 2012 to March 2015 at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris. A laboratory for discovery and reflection dedicated to contemporary practices of the moving image. Video, cinematic and multimedia works are presented as an Alphabet book.
W comme wonderland
Gaîte Lyrique, Paris, France | Wednesday 4 February 2015
For the 23rd letter of its alphabet book, Moving_Image revisits and transposes Lewis Carroll's inverted world world of Lewis Carroll in "Alice in Wonderland", with 6 rare films and videos that question the logic and arbitrariness of our contemporary world.
Hans Richter : Ghosts Before Breakfast (Vormittagsspuk) | Experimental film, 16mm, black and white, 7', Germany, 1927 [silent] Clocks go haywire, hats become birds and fly away, objects take on their independence independence, water flows backwards and absurd fights break out between Magrittian characters. magrittian characters. Hans Richter's film is part of the Dada movement, in its desire for provocation and and humour. It leaves room for the disconcerting work of dreams, for associations of ideas, and dazzling images. Hans Richter is one of the most important figures of 20th century avant-garde cinema. A precursor of lyrical abstraction, he participated in the expressionist, dada and surrealist surrealist movements. He notably directed "Rhythmus 21" (1921), an abstract film of a radicalness comparable to Kasimir Malevich's White Square on a White Background, and "Dreams That Money Can Buy" (1944-1947) with Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Alexander Calder.
Loic Vanderstichelen & Jean-Paul Jacquet : Every woman should have the tools to take control
of her life | Fiction, hdv, colour, 20'05'', Belgium, 2014 [VO French]
Loïc Vanderstichelen observes the improbable dialogues between 4 individuals during a company seminar
seminar in the impersonal spaces of a narrow post-modern hotel. The language of
gradually reveals its logical flaws, the facticity and absurdity of this
micro-society.
Loïc Vanderstichelen lives and works in Brussels. He has been directing and producing films since 1995. He has
co-directed several films with Simon Backès and Michel François. His film "Every Woman..." was
was made in collaboration with Jean-Paul Jacquet. His work has been exhibited and screened
at the MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, the Pompidou Centre and the National Museum
Reina Sofia National Museum.
Eduardo Williams : That I fall all the time? | Fiction, 16mm, colour, 15',
Argentina/France, 2013 [VOSTFR]
Eduardo Williams portrays a boy who lives a day like any other. There doesn't seem to be anything really
nothing really special, but very strange and fantastic things happen around him. The
continuity of the film is contradicted by sudden breaks in the continuity of spaces and actions.
actions. The viewer is left in doubt as to what is actually happening.
Eduardo Williams lives and works between Buenos Aires and Paris. He studied at the Universidad del Cine
in Buenos Aires and at the Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains. His films have been
screened at the Rome International Film Festival, at the Cinéfondation, at the Centre Pompidou
in the framework of the Rencontres Internationales. "Que je tombe tout le temps?" was selected for the
Directors' Fortnight in 2013.
Bjørn Melhus : No Sunshine | Video, hi8, colour, 6'19'', Germany, 1997 [without
dialogue]
Two identical characters, a video clip aesthetic and mechanical communication against a background of pop music.
pop music. These bodies float in a virtual space, connected to their subconscious bodies
represented in the background.
Bjørn Melhus lives and works in Berlin. His work explores the possibility of a critical reception
of film and television, through the use of fragments, the multiplication of characters and
disguise. His work has been presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of the
Rencontres Internationales, at MoMA and the Whitney Museum in New York, and at the Tate Modern in London.
Federico Solmi : Chinese Democracy and the last day on earth |Video, hdv, colour,
10'22'', Italy, 2012
Federico Solmi creates a satire of our contemporary society and the self-destructive nature
of the human race. In contrast to its falsely naïve playful aesthetic, the video points to a
world of hierarchy and human domination, controlled by arrogant and self-serving dictators, politicians and
and corrupt businessmen.
Federico Solmi lives and works in New York. His work combines different media such as video, drawing, sculpture and
drawing, sculpture and painting, and develops a satirical aesthetic to depict a critical vision of our society.
of our society. His work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou and the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia
and the Reina Sofia National Museum as part of the Rencontres Internationales, at the National Center for
Contemporary Art in Moscow, the Center of Moving Images in Melbourne and the Palazzo Delle Arti in Naples.
Konstantina Kotzamani : Washingtonia | Fiction exp, hdv, colour, 24', Greece, 2014 [VOSTFR]
Washingtonia is an alternative name given to the city of Athens, a place where people, like animals, sink into torpor and sadness.
people, like animals, sink into the torpor and sadness of summer. Washingtonia is the only palm tree whose
heart cannot be eaten by red beetles. Because its heart is small and dry, and
no one likes a small, dry heart.
Konstantina Kotzamani lives and works in Thessaloniki. She studied pharmacy and then film at the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She participated in the Talent Campus in Berlin and Sarajevo. Her
film "Washingtonia" was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Chicago International
Chicago International Film Festival, Turin International Film Festival.