From: Steven Ball (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Jan 01 2007 - 03:28:31 PST
COGCOLLECTIVE
presents
A SONG OF LOVE & LIVING FOR LIVING
Curated by Laurent Quénéhen
Brigade of Images, Paris
A Song of Love is a selection of films about non-meeting, or the
exchange with an invisible other where solitude leaves room for many
things to happen. The films in Living for Living address the
question of waiting for the ideal love, the relationship one dreams
about and the reality lived by the other person. Laurent Quénéhen is
a Paris-based photographer and curator. In 2002 he approached a
dozen European visual artists and proposed they participate in a
program of short video films entitled Love Video. This program was
followed in 2003 by Romance, A Song of Love in 2004, Rose and Green
in 2005, and Living for Living in 2006. The theme of each
compilation, often inspired by an existing work of art, is invariably
related to the representation of intimate feelings and relationships.
The themes allow for a great variety of works united by formal
characteristics such as short duration, non-narrative structure, and
the importance of image over text.
Films by
Estelle Artus, Karine Bonneval, Anne Brégeaut, Sylvain Ciavaldini,
Carine Doerflinger, Sandrine Elberg, Isabelle Ferreira, Maike Freess,
Alain K, Angelika Markul, David Ortsman,
Arnold Pasquier, Frédéric Pompéani, Maud Querol Ferrer, Sandra
Vanbremeersch.
4:00pm
Sunday 7th January 2007
basement of CANDID ARTS TRUST,
3 Torrens St,
London, EC1V 1NQ
(behind Angel Underground station)
£5/£3 (concs)
http://www.cogcollective.co.uk
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Programmes:
A Song of Love
“Cinema is indeed something profoundly shameless. It is capable of
magnifying gestures. The camera can open a zipper and look for the
hidden. If I find it necessary, I will have no hesitation in doing
it.” Jean Genet. A Song of Love is a selection of films about
meeting the other person. Yet, it would be more accurate to say that
they relate stories about non-meeting rather than meeting, like in an
eponymous short film by the French writer Jean Genet made in 1950
(forbidden until 1975). In this film, the viewer, together with the
prison guard, spies on a prisoner caressing himself while thinking of
his companion separated from him by a thick brick wall. There is an
exchange between the two people, however unusual. The films in A Song
of Love are also about the exchange with the invisible other. The
visible part of a film on this subject can equally well reveal both
what is present and what is missing. Solitude leaves room for many
things to happen.
The Life of an Artist: The Success 2'57, 2003, France
Sylvain Ciavaldini
It means … some irony, some humor.
It means … to be sufficiently light, to speak of tragic without
looking so.
It means … solitude.
La Notte (The Night) 3'28, 2003, France
Arnold Pasquier
To the song of Adamo, letters line up to form the lyrics of this
song. Inside these letters are hardly noticeable pictures of love
scenes.
If I Were You 7'02, 2003, Germany
Maike Freess
If I Were You is composed of two stories told simultaneously: a man
and a woman prepare to murder each other at the same place and the
same time. The increasing dramatization culminates in a paradox.
Aquarium 2'15, 2002, France
Carine Doerflinger
Aquarium is part of a series of 10 videos entitled Book of Sketches
#3. These videos are playful and borrow certain elements from
childhood memories which, behind their naïve looks, hide existential
problems.
I 6'14'', 2003, France
Karine Bonneval
A woman is bound to the floor of a closed area by three long leather
cords. This dark and reddish area becomes the scene for a strange
ritual: the dancer pulls on cords, makes movements trying to liberate
herself but in vain. Like an insect, she struggles until she drops
with exhaustion and accepts her state.
For it is possible that in order to move forward, one doesn't
necessarily need to leave…
I'm O.K. 1', 2004, France
Anne Brégeaut
What you feel for the other is not necessarily what he feels for you.
So you are wondering if love is not always something off the beat.
The Sludge 2'37, 2004, France
Isabelle Ferreira
In a pastoral and quiet setting a body is lying on the ground. A body
of a drowned person.
The O.C.D 3'35, 2004, France/Poland
Angelika Markul
What do women do in the kitchen? They make soups with the balls of
their men: a small symbolic vengeance which gives an appetite.
Domestic Underground 8' 18, 2003, France
Estelle Artus
This film is a study of two situations which degenerate
simultaneously: one presents a couple coming home after an ordinary
evening out, the other takes us inside where a couple of bad boys
play poker. While it's totally illogical and absurd, the sadness of
both situations undergoes a transformation only to become the joy of
life, despite the violence of the film.
Rocco K 1' 05, 2003, France
Alain K
-…for if I want to be an artist, if I do it seriously, I still want
to look like a jerk.
-…Hmm, that will be it for today.
-…
-…You know, however, that to “jerk” has another meaning?
-…You are so right, doctor, I replied while getting up from the couch.
Monday, March 8, 2004
My Way 4' 21, 2003, France
Frédéric Pompéani
Jean Luc Godard once wrote that a film exists by the viewer.
What would happen if every viewer was creating his own script of an
already existing movie? Here is an example.
Today - nothing 25'', 2004, France
Anne Brégeaut
It's a crossfade with a white, untouched day.
And if Tomorrow… 2'45, 2004, France
Sandra Vanbremeersch
Gazing far away, into nowhere, hiding one's face in pillows - it's a
story about feeling nostalgic, like many other ones. No special
effects, a film in black and white - is its author looking to make
things more poetic or more bitter? From the trivial to the precious,
from the emotion to the irony, each of us binds himself as he can to
what intimacy gives. The romantic can exist in the most ordinary
setting, like in this film.
Living for Living
Living for Living (Vivre pour Vivre) is the title of a film by Claude
Lelouch about the life of a couple, infidelity, then three people in
a relationship, and finally the solitude.Short films presented in the
program address the question of waiting for the ideal love, the
relationship one dreams about and the reality lived by the other person.
Today I met the love as a dense and blue spit. M.Q.F.
Régina 3', 2005, France/Poland
Angélika Markul
Régina is a film about the beauty of birds flying, about the sun
rising, about the gentleness of a scented hot bath and about a girl
who catches the reflection of her pretty face. Only on the other side
of the mirror, behind the beautiful fronts, the death wanders around,
the anguish slowly penetrates the everyday life.
A ceaseless anxiety in the heart of happiness, das unheilmliche.
C'est plus Sûr (This Way it's Sure) 2'01, 2006, France
Alain K
I would like to simply film the ceiling while she's asleep next to me…
Parade 1'49, 2005, France
Isabelle Ferreira
Parade is a silent and visual dialogue between two mechanisms.
Fragment d'un Discours Amoureux (Fragment of a Lover's Discourse),
8', 2003, France
Maud Querol Ferrer
"the door still open
Don't told me that
the door still open
One day you're gonna regret what you said"
When it's Most Beautiful 3'40, 1999, Germany
Maike Freess
In All wishes start from here a woman and a man sit down at a table
again and again.
Trying to get in contact with their vis-a-visthey meet themselves
sometims. After some moments the visitor mentions the impossibility
of a real communication. The scene is a video construction with the
seduction of a real image.
Where it Clicks 8', 2006, France
Estelle Artus
Where it Clicks is the place where a man meets a woman under absurd
circumstances and where the question of having a child together
arises in a way no less absurd. Where it Clicks is the story where
one fights, shouts and loses the nerve between men and women public
bathroom of a New York train station. Where it Clicks is a movie with
no certainty but one: time keeps running, clock keeps ticking even if
sometimes it ticks out of joint.
Chambre X, (Room X) 3', 2005, France
Sandrine Elberg
A strange night in a London hotel room. Between the absence and the
waiting a young woman is trying to fall asleep . There is no noise
except for the strident telephone ring.
Ma Sœur Adore Mon Frère (My Sister Adores My Brother) 3'40, 2005, France
David Ortsman
My sister has intrusive attitudes and gestures regarding my brother
who decides to take revenge in a pitiful manner.
La Reine de la Nuit (The Queen of the Night) 3', 2004, France
Carine Doerflinger
Carine Doerflinger takes hold of elements of daily life and
manipulates them in different manners (little effects like music,
sound or a particular inscenation) to take them out of their original
function and out of their usual context and so gives them other
senses, other meanings.
Le Paradis est où Je Suis (Paradise is Where I Am), 4'41, 2005, France
Arnold Pasquier
http://www.cogcollective.co.uk
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