INTERVILLES
WOLSTENHOLME
CREATIVE SPACE- LIVERPOOL.UK
Friday 26 February
04 MARCH 2010
Written by
TRAVIS LEE STREET
Three young artists brought together work from 14
international artists who are or have been making
work at the art school in Grenoble in a régal night of experimental film-making. Curated by Alice
Malinge, Baptiste Croze and Léo Durand, the evening
showcased fourteen films of varying lengths that
dealt with everything from shit ex-boyfriends to the
beauty of water (and in fact, the beauty of life.)
Based on the simple question; "Why is that simple
and delightful?", Malinge, Croze and Durand
found a way to take advantage of their stay in
Liverpool to focus their ideas around a location
with new
ideas intended to immerse the audience in something
out-of-the-ordinary, with the promise that "back in Grenoble later this year, we’d like to return the
favor with a second episode, showing Liverpool
artists’ work in Grenoble." Wonderful deeds by
wonderful people.
Tu seras toujours mon Bébé
Perrine Garassus 3’ 27’’ [2009]
The first film by Perrine Garassus
commented on action and audio. The immediate
connection between what the ear and eye receive and
how the brain connects the two to form a cohesive
impression of the whole. Mariah Carrey's voice was
replaced by a simple vocorder and her video was
edited to the point of robotic incompetence.
Personally I couldn't see the different between that
and the original, but that's just being mean to
Mariah.
The swimming lesson Béatrice
Guyot’ 18’’ [2009]
The second film was a true winner in
my book. Simplicity of life incarnate. A swimming
lesson by our 76 year old swimming instructor;
'Madame Petite' who (really could have been in her
late 40s by the way she moved). Commenting on swimming as a
state of being,
her points about the relevance of being calm in the
water and being calm in one's own life couldn't not hit home
as she floated about as serene and at peace in the
water as the most beautiful of koi. As Madame Petite
said, "To swim, is... is good, but this is a little
part of happiness that we can have in water."
Beautifully shot, wonderfully thought-through. A
treasure.
A feeling of today Alexandra
David 7’34’’ [2007]
The next piece was a sure-fire lady pleaser. A film
by Alexandra David which dissected her past
relationships in a way that only an unsatisfied
ex-lover could. Replete with drawings from memory,
David tagged and chronicled her own past experiences
of men over the past two years. About this she says,
"Using spontaneous drawings and simple editing, I
wished to convey an intimate image in which the
spectator can easily identify and that permits to
focus on the story itself. The hesitations in the
story are just as I lived them, the spelling
mistakes are like errors during a relationship, like
bugs, lines of words reflecting the needs and
difficulties to understand one another and to love."
And every woman I talked to in the room loved this
piece (whereas all the men I conversed with kind of
crossed their legs in a rather inept refusal of all
the truths about men that David so readily
revealed... especially about shaving your pubic hair
to make your dick look bigger... they know that
trick by now fellas...).
Parking Baptiste Croze
7’ 07’’ [2006]
Baptiste Croze titillated the
audience with his Parking [2006] in which he
pays for a parking space for 30 minutes and takes up the space
with a vehicle. A simple concept "about
private property and it’s dysfunction in the public
space", which is why its so riveting. A
reinterpretation on temporary public ownership, it is
fascinating to see the reactions from the
general public as they are forced to interact with Croze.
He relates, "my presence forced a reaction
from spectators who became players; one 4x4 owner
blasted me with his exhausted fumes and a man pushed
with the back with his nice cabriolet..."
Untitled Jean-Luc Dang 11’
05’’ [2006]
The 7th film by Jean-Luc Dang is a
photographic diary of his life led in the town of
Chalon sur Saône five months after the French riots.
It was a very idiosyncratic piece with a compelling
narrative over still shots of his friends and
everyday life. Recalling the current
damage done to the property around his neighborhood, Dang transposes the riotous
atmosphere onto the current situations in his and
his friend's lives. Secretly filming at points with
police interaction, Dang shows a level of hostility
in the 71 (zip code of Chalon sur Saône is: 71100)
that few outsiders would have the opportunity of
witnessing.
Library Heather Jones 3’
[2008]
Heather Jones' video Library was an exercise in planning and
participation as endless rows of library shelves cut
through scenes of countless masses of individuals
adopting various unusual positions in a library
setting. The video stream flows uninterrupted
by the endless nonchalance of vagility from these
individuals. The audience's attention is captured,
not necessarily by these individuals' positions, by the technical fortitude of
Jones' planning and insight.
24 petites montagnes (document1)
Leo Durand 5’ 25’’ [2009]
Leo Durand presented a piece of his installation art
in video form as a series of 24 small montages.
Hiding public fountains under black bin bags, it
immediately brought to mind the work of Joshua Allen
Harris (NYC subway wind artist). Whereas Harris'
works are meant to surprise and entertain, Durand
took his piece a few steps further by preempting
these installations to the public by putting up a series of posters
around the space (an old shopping center) which conveyed
the installations as an "official
relaxing event". Misinforming the public in
this way nicely played with the way in which an
audience can hold together an idea of art from an expectation.
Open Air Sun Noh 5’ 46’’
[2010]
Second to last on the night was a piece by Sun Noh
which highlighted individuals in an awkward
situation; being away from their destination and stuck in the middle of a forest. I
got the feeling that a train had broken down and
that the public, at once forced into a situation,
were left helpless and as broken down as their
transport. Though no such references were made during
the film, one had the sensation of being
interminably rendered a victim, regardless of whether it
was just a simple accident or breakdown. It was easy to see
how helpless many of them were as they tried fruitlessly to
access their mobile networks while standing on various woodland objects (a broken log, a mound of
dirt, a defunct tractor). This film really portrayed
our reliance on automation and technology in a most
disconcerting way.
Golda Romain Hamard 60’ [2010]
And finally, a film by Romain Hamard
entitled Golda; a 60 minute film that I wound up calling
'an endurance
piece'. This film really had me riveted to my
freezing seat, even as I bore the freezing temperatures
of the Wolstenholme project space. At the end of it, all I could say was that, "I
have never seen a film like it" and surely,
that was probably the best way to describe my
feeling about it. Golda consisted of a cameraman and his assistant
(with a boom mike) following a woman for
an hour through the streets of France... for no
apparent reason. They just followed her, and
followed her... through the snowy streets, through
her university library, into her study group, until
she confronted them with apprehension and
questions and you realize that this woman is a
complete stranger. Facing the absolute silence of the camera crew,
she very coolly (in the way only a French woman
would) resumed her everyday life and studies. There was no proper 'ending', there was only
this woman, her interactions with her friends and
daily life, and the puzzle of trying to figure out
what the point was. Simple and quizzical.
Ending on such a note
was, I'm sure, no coincidence. Like the beers sold at the
counter which burst every time they were opened,
each film in the night's line-up was purposefully
shaken and presented for either your enjoyment and
contemplation, or your gritting, fidgeted bemusement. Either way,
it was an experience that I will soon not forget,
and that to me, was the grandest conveyance of
delight and simplicity.
Full list of all films shown:
1 Perrine GARASSUS, Tu seras toujours mon
Bébé, 3’ 27’’, 2009
2 Béatrice GUYOT, The swimming lesson, 9’ 18’’ , 2009
3 Alexandra DAVID, A feeling of today 7’34’’ , 2007
4 Jerome CAVALIERE, Ritournelle, 4’ 15’’ , 2009
5 Baptiste CROZE, Parking, 7’ 07’’ , 2006
6 Gabrielle BOULANGER, Urban series//nonhuman urbans, 9’
Since 2006
7 Jean-Luc DANG, Untitled, 11’ 05’’ , 2006
8 Miro SOARES, Growing Plants, 2’ 10’’ , 2007
9 Heather JONES, Library, 3’ , 2008
10 Marija LINCIUTE, Labas, 8’ 19’’ , 2009
11 Leo DURAND, 24 petites montagnes (document1), 5’ 25’’ ,
2009
12 Perrine GARASSUS, Isaïe 2:4 Tango, 57’’ , 2010
13 Sun NOH, Open Air, 5’ 46’’ , 2010
14 Romain HAMARD, Golda, 60’ , 2010
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