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I travel and review art exhibits in a manner that you don`t need a phd to grasp. I am attracted by clarity and dialogue rather than the usual artcentrism of specialized readings. I witness as many art shows as any official journalist, but keep in mind that I`m NOT a "writer", merely a purveyor of sentiments and impressions. Because I am based in Montreal this diary will mostly focus on its scene, but I`ll be voicing opinions on major, worldwide issues.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Ophelian Scape: Bertrand Carrière`s "913 (Jubilee)"
Bertrand Carrière is a Montreal photographer that has been exhibiting and publishing (magazines, books) since the mid 80`s. His style is usually dramatic, technically polished. The exhibition "Jubilee" (18 July 2002), installed a couple years ago at Dieppe shore in France, and which no one here ever saw cos it lasted only one day, has been the subject of a documentary called "913", that I saw at last Montreal Festival Of Films On Art, and that was complemented by a short exhibit of lavishing photographs presented at la Cinémathèque during the event.
"Jubilee" was the first in-situ installation of this kind made by the artist. It consisted of 913 black and white individual photographs of the heads of young men, all wearing the same black shirt, and installed in a pyramidal shape on wooden sticks on the Dieppe "ex-warfield" shore of terrible second world war events, in France. They stood there for a few hours until the tide lifted and destroyed a portion of the work by pulling the photos into the sea (that process was documented). Afterward, the "survived" photographs were picked up and installed for a few days in a similar triangular shape in the nearby military cemetary laying on the propriety of a country church, where apparently, they still stand (!).
Did you feel something weird already ? That part about photos polluting the sea ? Well, in the documentary, the artist even brought back some extra photos on a boat, a couple years later, and throw them all in the sea, one by one (!). I`ve done my research...the artist confirms he picked everything up or most of it after the performance. I`m relieved... because watching the documentary made me believe he had just "layed his stuff" over there, and my general impression about photographic chemicals is that they are not very ecologic. I could be wrong.
Why did he do it ?
It`s a monument to the 913 canadian militaries that died during the "jubilee" operation during second world war on 19 August 1942. It`s a rituel of sort, to exorcise their memories and ours. It`s also quite a nationalistic project since they were actually 1400 men that died in the Normandie events, but fact is canadians were sent upfront and served kind of as protective bags to the allies, and trust me at the time that made a lot of people really upset.
Why young contemporary men instead of original photos of the dead militaries ?
There is an important link made about the notion of filiation. The men that died at Dieppe were the age of the father of the artist. It`s a way to underline how we should feel linked with these events.
Why the waves ?
Well, the metaphor of the tide, representing the passing of time, disintegration of memory, death, etc, has been a little overused, though it`s the first time I heard of such ephemere photographic installation on a seashore. Somehow there is a notion of sexuality that enters here, if you permit me opening a stretch. Masculine fertility is the only way you`ll get to all those young photographed boys. The disparity of fathers mean the disparity of sons.
Why the pyramidal shape ?
Militarist strategy ? It could be so many things. It`s photogenic, it`s practical (the most photos get eaten up by the sea in the background), etc.. The photographs are aligned to reflect a monument in Cambodgia where they put all photos of victims from their own genocide on the walls of a commemorative museum.
Did you like it, Ced ?
Andy Goldsworthy made plenty of ephemeral "land art" that disintegrated with tide: sort of intimate ritualistic works that we can only witness through the photographic documents that he provides. Bertrand Carrière is tricking Goldsworthy by placing directly his photos into the land. The formal approach is interesting. And simply the gesture of going all the way down there is fond and expresses a rare sense of compassion and love for mankind.
Alas, the image of the wave representing the tragic death of these people is,
with all the best intention in the world, a little naive poetically.
I don`t reproach this to Bertrand, personally. We all come to realize
these types of works involving basic ophelian metaphors
about water. It`s the guy`s first installation: give him a break. Trust me, we all go through it.
The other problem is that commemorative works often imply a weakness toward the universal scope of an artwork, but thankfully, Carrière manages
to evitate the specific by proposing a work about filiation, about men being linked to others through and against historical tragedies.
His set of photos will warranty him a certain success,
because their polished quality elevate the actual
importance of the event. The work of the photographer
recycles skillfully the work of the "artist", and this is his major strenght.
Next to these photos (and poster for the project)
was another set (they were 6 photos encasted in a beautiful
dark wood frame), and I forgot the title, but,
they were landscapes (trees, shore) surrounding an architectural
space that ressembled a large tumb from an ancient civilisation.
Or was it a bunker ? Ok, now I`m pretty sure it was a bunker.
Don`t mock me, it was late and I was tired. They looked
like ravishing photos of the type that will appear soon or
later in a CV Photo magazine essay.
Bare with my humble hope we never have to go through war again,
If I can do my part of being sensitive,
Cheers,
Cedric Caspesyan
PS: I never had time to review the films I saw during the Fifa.
The best ones were "The Life Of Luciano Visconti", that explained
how he really lived as a child amongst the type of people and kind
of life he portrayed in his film (loved the interviews with his two main
lovers: Francisco Zeffirelli and Helmut Berger). Than, a film
about Vermeer, the mystery surrounding his peaceful work
when his life wasn`t. Or another film on the glamorous life of
Coco Chanel that ended up living alone. But the best of the best
was the duo about Iraq Lost Cities (Babylon, Ur, etc..impressive ruins of the first cities of the world, some reduced to sand, but you can still find decorative pieces of the Babel tower, the very first skyscraper) and a film explaining the weakness of World Trade Center, which were two giant tin cans built by baby boomers to impress, but not very solid due to lack of finances resulting in cheaper
architecture solutions. I can`t go in details (I did on some
list), but that is a must-see, shocking documentary about America.
Comments-[ comments.]
"Jubilee" was the first in-situ installation of this kind made by the artist. It consisted of 913 black and white individual photographs of the heads of young men, all wearing the same black shirt, and installed in a pyramidal shape on wooden sticks on the Dieppe "ex-warfield" shore of terrible second world war events, in France. They stood there for a few hours until the tide lifted and destroyed a portion of the work by pulling the photos into the sea (that process was documented). Afterward, the "survived" photographs were picked up and installed for a few days in a similar triangular shape in the nearby military cemetary laying on the propriety of a country church, where apparently, they still stand (!).
Did you feel something weird already ? That part about photos polluting the sea ? Well, in the documentary, the artist even brought back some extra photos on a boat, a couple years later, and throw them all in the sea, one by one (!). I`ve done my research...the artist confirms he picked everything up or most of it after the performance. I`m relieved... because watching the documentary made me believe he had just "layed his stuff" over there, and my general impression about photographic chemicals is that they are not very ecologic. I could be wrong.
Why did he do it ?
It`s a monument to the 913 canadian militaries that died during the "jubilee" operation during second world war on 19 August 1942. It`s a rituel of sort, to exorcise their memories and ours. It`s also quite a nationalistic project since they were actually 1400 men that died in the Normandie events, but fact is canadians were sent upfront and served kind of as protective bags to the allies, and trust me at the time that made a lot of people really upset.
Why young contemporary men instead of original photos of the dead militaries ?
There is an important link made about the notion of filiation. The men that died at Dieppe were the age of the father of the artist. It`s a way to underline how we should feel linked with these events.
Why the waves ?
Well, the metaphor of the tide, representing the passing of time, disintegration of memory, death, etc, has been a little overused, though it`s the first time I heard of such ephemere photographic installation on a seashore. Somehow there is a notion of sexuality that enters here, if you permit me opening a stretch. Masculine fertility is the only way you`ll get to all those young photographed boys. The disparity of fathers mean the disparity of sons.
Why the pyramidal shape ?
Militarist strategy ? It could be so many things. It`s photogenic, it`s practical (the most photos get eaten up by the sea in the background), etc.. The photographs are aligned to reflect a monument in Cambodgia where they put all photos of victims from their own genocide on the walls of a commemorative museum.
Did you like it, Ced ?
Andy Goldsworthy made plenty of ephemeral "land art" that disintegrated with tide: sort of intimate ritualistic works that we can only witness through the photographic documents that he provides. Bertrand Carrière is tricking Goldsworthy by placing directly his photos into the land. The formal approach is interesting. And simply the gesture of going all the way down there is fond and expresses a rare sense of compassion and love for mankind.
Alas, the image of the wave representing the tragic death of these people is,
with all the best intention in the world, a little naive poetically.
I don`t reproach this to Bertrand, personally. We all come to realize
these types of works involving basic ophelian metaphors
about water. It`s the guy`s first installation: give him a break. Trust me, we all go through it.
The other problem is that commemorative works often imply a weakness toward the universal scope of an artwork, but thankfully, Carrière manages
to evitate the specific by proposing a work about filiation, about men being linked to others through and against historical tragedies.
His set of photos will warranty him a certain success,
because their polished quality elevate the actual
importance of the event. The work of the photographer
recycles skillfully the work of the "artist", and this is his major strenght.
Next to these photos (and poster for the project)
was another set (they were 6 photos encasted in a beautiful
dark wood frame), and I forgot the title, but,
they were landscapes (trees, shore) surrounding an architectural
space that ressembled a large tumb from an ancient civilisation.
Or was it a bunker ? Ok, now I`m pretty sure it was a bunker.
Don`t mock me, it was late and I was tired. They looked
like ravishing photos of the type that will appear soon or
later in a CV Photo magazine essay.
Bare with my humble hope we never have to go through war again,
If I can do my part of being sensitive,
Cheers,
Cedric Caspesyan
PS: I never had time to review the films I saw during the Fifa.
The best ones were "The Life Of Luciano Visconti", that explained
how he really lived as a child amongst the type of people and kind
of life he portrayed in his film (loved the interviews with his two main
lovers: Francisco Zeffirelli and Helmut Berger). Than, a film
about Vermeer, the mystery surrounding his peaceful work
when his life wasn`t. Or another film on the glamorous life of
Coco Chanel that ended up living alone. But the best of the best
was the duo about Iraq Lost Cities (Babylon, Ur, etc..impressive ruins of the first cities of the world, some reduced to sand, but you can still find decorative pieces of the Babel tower, the very first skyscraper) and a film explaining the weakness of World Trade Center, which were two giant tin cans built by baby boomers to impress, but not very solid due to lack of finances resulting in cheaper
architecture solutions. I can`t go in details (I did on some
list), but that is a must-see, shocking documentary about America.
