visions glimpsed robert cahen - Musées de Strasbourg
Transcription
visions glimpsed robert cahen - Musées de Strasbourg
VISIONS GLIMPSED ROBERT CAHEN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM 15 MARCH / 11 MAY 2014 Press Relations Communications Department, Strasbourg Museums Julie Barth julie.barth@ strasbourg.eu Tel.: +33/(0)3 88 52 50 15 Fax: +33/(0)3 88 52 50 42 www.musees.strasbourg.eu PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 1. PROJECT PAGE 2 2. WORKS PRESENTED PAGE 3 3. BIOGRAPHICAL RESUME AND SELECTED PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS PAGE 5 4. FILMOGRAPHY PAGE 7 5. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 9 6. PUBLICATION PAGE 10 7. EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL PROGRAMME PAGE 12 8. VISITOR INFORMATION PAGE 13 9. PRESS VISUALS PAGE 14 1 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 1. Project Robert Cahen is considered a pioneer In the history of video art. Over the last forty years he has been producing poetic work founded on universal themes such as journeys, encounters or death and characterized by an emphasis on the texture and rhythm of the images. This visual experimentation derives from his previous experience as a composer in the ORTF Music Research Group and his transposition of the language of musique concrète into video terms. This can be seen in his use of such varied effects as oscillation, double exposure, slow motion, shifting and retention of images. Numerous workshops, residences and international festivals have gained recognition for Robert Cahen's work all over the world and he is among the French video artists who are most often exhibited outside France. This exhibition is, however, the first to be devoted in France to this artist for nearly twenty years. It is not so much a retrospective as an journey through a series of works, from L’Entr’aperçu (Fleetingly Glimpsed, 1980) to Françoise endormie (Françoise Asleep, 2014), and revealing a highly personal world of "visions glimpsed". Here the use of the term entrevoir has three distinct senses: first, what is at work between the images; then an entre-temps, or time lapse, specific to memory processes; and finally a voir entre, or "seeing between", in which a dialogue is set up between those being filmed and the spectator. Central to the exhibition are the installations, including L’Entre (The Between) – produced in 2014 by the MAMCS – while, in the sixteen works that go to make up the exhibition sequence, the author explores the image itself, the space it occupies, its movement and its construction, between appearing and disappearing. "Entre voir !" can thus be heard as an invitation – "Enter and see !" – running counter to the mundanity of today's images, an invitation to perceive the Real transcended. Exhibition Curator: Héloïse Conésa, curator at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Scenographer: Thierry Maury As part of their support for artistic creation, one of the strong points of the association's policy, the AMAMCS has contributed to the production of the installation entitled "Entrevoir", which is being presented in this exhibition. 2 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 2. Works presented Visions fugitives / Fleeting Visions (1995-1997). 7 x 5’, video installation, colour, sound Monitors enclosed in 7 oblong wooden crates, each showing a looped video sequence Image: Robert Cahen / Acoustic design: Michel Chion Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain d’Alsace, 1998 Placed as an introduction to the exhibition at the entrance to the Museum, this installation keeps the viewer at a distance from the images, as if he were seeing these fleeting yet symbolic visions of the East through a telescope. In the artist's own words, "For me, it is in the idea of the passage that something essential takes shape; it is from this idea that these seven short poems have been written, fleeting visions of a China half perceived, half seen, half heard, constantly in motion." Artmatic (1980). 4'15'’, video, colour, sound Special effects: Dominique Belloir, Robert Cahen / Editing: Alain Longuet / Soundtrack: Robert Cahen. Film made with the first French digital ciné camera, an invention perfected by Jean-François Colonna, Lactamme, École Polytechnique, Paris Artist's collection The camera used was the first to be made in France – at the Lactamme-École Polytechnique. It was designed to capture certain movements, those of the artist's hand for example, digitizing the images every 3 to 5 seconds and colouring them. Various effects catching our visual attention, such as shifts of materials and colours, were thus made possible. Digitizing images as early as 1980 was a considerable technical feat. L’Entr’aperçu / Fleetingly Glimpsed (1980). 9', video, colour, sound Special effects: Stéphane Huter / Images, editing and soundtrack: Robert Cahen Production: INA, Groupe Recherche Images, Serge Com Artist's collection In a series of shots following one another in rapid rapid succession, L'Entr'aperçu reveals the hidden scenes of a mysterious interview between two characters. The aim is to unmask the real by concentrating on the desire to see, to know what it is that is presented as "fleetingly glimpsed", when in fact it should be seen. Traverses / Crossings (2002). 30’, continuous loop video projection, colour, silent Special effets: Patrick Zanoli With support from Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains, CICV Pierre Schaeffer, Montbéliard-Belfort, ZKM Karlsruhe, DRAC Alsace Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, Harris Museum, Preston, UK, artist's collection Human figures emerge from a fog and are gradually enveloped in the opaque whiteness. These barely discernible wraiths, with their powerful aura, were obtained in postproduction by incrusting the figures and the white mist, using the "Inferno" machine. Entrevoir (2014). 18’, video installation, continuous loop panoramic double image projection, sound, colour Steadicam: Bruno Soupart / Editing: Thierry Maury / Acoustic design: Francisco Ruiz de Infante (soundtrack extracts from Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries) Studio Autour de la terre, Production: Boulevard des Productions – Pixea Studio Artist's collection The work, made up from panoramic shots of landscapes (forests, fields, thickets) projected on to two large flate screens, invites the viewer to immerse himself in the natural setting while at the same time keeping it at a distance, through the gap between the two projected images. The soundtrack of the installation was made in collaboration with Francisco Ruiz de Infante, using Bergman's Wild Strawberries. It adds to the mystery and melancholy emanating from this "crossing" of the landscape while at the same time incorporating a fictional or narrative dimension. 3 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 Françoise (2013). 6’, continuous loop projection on suspended transparent display, colour, silent Image: Robert Cahen Artist's collection Here, the artist has filmed his sister. The use of close-ups and scarcely perceptible changes in expression give to this time-weathered face the serenity of a landscape, a mirror of the soul. Portraits (2013). 5’, continuous loop projection on transparent display, black and white, silent Image: Robert Cahen Production: Pixea Studio Artist's collection The artist has brought back these silent dialogues from his many journeys. Who is looking at whom, and to see what? Long, almost static shots probe the mystery of the other. The gaze - at times frontal and persistent, at times gradually revealing itself - becomes the fulcrum of this visual dialogue. From it emerges something that is beyond appearances, a tacit understanding of the relationship with the other. These portraits are forerunners of work planned by the artist on a subject defined by Michel Chion as "individual anonymity". Françoise endormie / Françoise Asleep (2014). 5’, continuous loop projection on transparent cloth, colour, silent Image: Robert Cahen Production : Pixea Studio Artist's collection Once again, it is the figure of the artist's sister who is central to the installation. The viewer is not confronted with a supposed funeral vigil but asked to contemplate a seemingly sleeping figure. Like the slight movements of the camera, the fact that the image has been stood on its side contributes, if not to exorcising death, at least to suspending the flight of time. L’Entre / The Between (2014). 12’, continuous loop mural projection, colour, silent Image : Robert Cahen / Editing, spécial effects: Thierry Maury Production: Pixea Studio Artist's collection L’Entre presents those whom the artist calls "the world's passers-by", bringing together those being filmed as much as those observing them. The effect of these appearances and disappearances, accentuated by the striated images, is to give the viewer the feeling that he is himself moving and to make it difficult to identify any particular face. The artist is addressing our memory and inciting us to pick out from this criss-crossing stream of portraits those men and women who strike a chord in us and give us a déjà-vu sensation. Le maître du temps, Pierre Boulez dirige Mémoriale / The Master of Time, Pierre Boulez conducts Mémoriale (2011). Performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain 7’, two HD continuous loop projections on a surface, colour, sound Head cameraman: Guillaume Brault / Sound engineer: Frédéric Prin Production: Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains Artist's collection The artist films Pierre Boulez conducting the Ensemble Intercontemporain in his piece "Mémoriale", composed in 1985. Mémoriale is a short work for flute and eight instruments, written in homage to Larry Beauregard, who died in that year. Beauregard was a flute player who had worked to find an interface between computer and musical instrument. In the composer's words, he was a "model of what, ideally, every musician of the future should be." Pierre Boulez, L’art de diriger / Pierre Boulez, The Art of Conducting (2011). 11’, projection on monitor Editing: Thierry Maury Production: Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Pixea Studio Edited with the support of Festival Musica This interview with Pierre Boulez, essentially on the subject of conducting the orchestra, was conducted by the artist in 2011, and completes the presentation of this installation. 4 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 Temps contre temps / Cross Rhythms (2014). 4’, continuous loop projection, black and white, sound Image: Robert Cahen Production: Pixea Studio Artist's collection This video presents the encounter between Man Ray’s Indestructible Objet (1923-1959) and Joseph Beuys’ Homogenous Infiltration for Grand Piano (1966). Two time frames intersect here, the one patterned by the pulses of the metronome, the other marked by the continuous silence of Beuys’ piano. La Barre jaune / The Yellow Bar (2014). 6’, continuous loop mural projection, colour, sound Image: Rob Rombout / Editing: Thierry Maury Production: Pixea Studio Artist's collection Here the dividing line of the image is the yellow line. A Chinese landscape has been filmed from inside a taxi and the image upended. It streams past our eyes like the raindrops trickling down the windowpane. The same image sequence being repeated adds to the impression of a timeless cycle. This is reinforced by the scrolling urban panorama, made almost abstract by its swiftness. La Traversée du rail / Crossing the Rails (2014). 7’30’’, continuous loop projection on thin-film display placed on floor, colour, sound Image: Robert Cahen Production: Pixea Studio Artist's collection The video shows a procession of bicycles, motorcycles and pedestrians coming and going in a hubbub of engines at a railway level crossing in China. Contrasting with this incessant stream of people and vehicles, the central, stable presence of an almost deserted railway line divides up the image between the fixed camera and an impression of a continuous flow, a never-ending passage. This is reinforced by the editing, involving the scarcely perceptible repetition of an endless loop. Sanaa, passages en noir / Sana'a, passages in Black (2007). 7’07”, video projection, colour, sound Image: Robert Cahen / Editing, video effects: Thierry Maury Music: J.S. Bach, The Passion according to St. John (extract) Production: Boulevard des Productions Artist's collection The video was filmed in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen: women in black are seen passing through a narrow little street. The fleeting but repetitive aspect of the reworked image gives the video a hypnotic character, reinforced by the music chosen, an extract from Bach's St. John Passion. As well as a meditation on the idea of the passage, the artist introduces an unexpected exchange between two cultures. Suaire / Shroud (1997). 25’, double image continuous loop video projection on suspended cloth, black and white, silent, ring of white stones on floor Image: Robert Cahen / Editing and special effects: Christian Cuilleron The work questions the precarious balance between emergence and absence, the ubiquitous use of the colour white symbolising both fullness and emptiness. This duality is seen in the four faces appearing and disappearing on the cloth, which hangs over a stretch of gravel crunching beneath the visitor's footsteps. The shroud is of course also a reminder of the Vera Iconica, the true icon. This was the image left on a piece of cloth traditionally used by St. Veronica to wipe the face of Christ. Tombe (avec les objets) / Fall (with the Objects) (1997). 23’, continuous loop video projection, colour, silent Image: Robert Cahen / Editing and special effects: Christian Cuilleron Fonds régional d’art contemporain d’Alsace, 1998 and artist's collection Various apparently weightless objects enter the visual field, slowly moving downwards, their fall slowed by the liquid element. Once again, it is the idea of a passage that haunts this work but here it is intensified by a distinctive, deathly emotion, already found in the work's title. 5 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 3. Biographical Resume and Selected Personal and Collective Exhibitions 1945 Born in Valence, France 1946 His family arrives in Mulhouse after remaining hidden in the Drôme area of France during the war 1971 Graduates from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris (having studied with Pierre Schaeffer) 1971-76 Composer in the Musical Research Group/GRM of the French National Broadcasting Service/ORTF Researcher in charge of experimental video in the ORTF Research Department Research Fellow at the National Audiovisual Institute/INA, director of the experimental video workshop 1976 Performance with Michel Chion, "Speech of One, Silence of the Other", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 1977 Trip to New York with Michel Chion. Meets Bill Etra and Nam June Paik 1980 "Art and Computer Science" Prize awarded for Artmatique by the French Ministry of Culture 1983 Just Time wins an award at San Sebastian, Spain Creates Boulez-Repons, to music by Pierre Boulez (television programme prototype) 1986 First shooting sessions in Hong Kong for Hong Kong Song and Guilin (China) 1987 Presentation of his film Just Time at Documenta 7, Kassel First trip to Chile for the Franco- Chilean Festival. Films Chili-Impressions 1990 Organiser of the 10th Franco-Chilean Festival. Films L'île Mystérieuse on Easter Island 1992 Is awarded the Villa Medicis "Hors les Murs" grant Shooting in the Antarctic, accompanied by Angela Riesco. Fims Winter Journey 1993 Film and video retrospective in Peking Workshops in Chinese art schools at Wuhan, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Canton Films Seven Fleeting Visions during trip to China Retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française CEAAC Prize, Strasbourg 1994 Wins Golden Laser, Locarno Video Festival 1995 Wins Internationaler Videokunstpreis, ZKM Karlsruhe, for Seven Fleeting Visions 1996 Permanent video Installation, Euralille site, Lille, France 1997 First video installation exhibited in France, "Robert Cahen Installs Work", Frac/Alsace 1999 "Video Viewpoint", MoMa New York Film and video retrospective, Mumbai International Film Festival 2000/2007 Shooting sessions and video retrospectives in China, Vietnam, Japan, Yemen, 6 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 Azerbaidjan, Ouzbekistan, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Italy, Norway… 2001 Canton, so Chinese, documentary co-directed with Rob Rombout 2004 Shanghai Biennial "Techniques of the Visible" Mission to the Svalbard archipelago (Arctic). Films the video, The Circle 2007 Exhibition at Fundación Telefónica Buenos Aires, "Robert Cahen/Marcel Odenbach: La mirada discreta" Exhibition at Fukuoka (Kyushu) Fine Arts Museum and the Franco-Japanese Institute in Tokyo, "Robert Cahen Installs Work" 2008 Exhibition of installations, Hong Kong City Hall ("Le French May") Exhibition of video installations, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland 2009 Exhibition, Harris Museum, Preston, U.K. Exhibition, Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca: Robert Cahen : Passaggi (curator Sandra Lischi) 2010 Video retrospective, Jeu de Paume, Paris Film shooting in Georgia with Nicolas Vérin Picha Biennial at Lubumbashi, Congo Associate Professor, Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing 2011 Exhibition, ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, "Narrating the Invisible" Exhibition, Lucien Schweitzer Gallery, Luxembourg, "On one Side, on the Other" Exhibition, Banditzaros Gallery, Seoul, "From Visible to Invisible" Exhibitio, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, "Travels/Encounters" (curator Hou Hanru) 2012 Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival "Fugitive beauty: the films of Robert Cahen", first retrospectiv Hawick - Scotland Exhibition, Posada del Potro, Cordoba, "La naturaleza infinita de Robert Cahen". (Espagne) commissaire Juan-Ramon Barbancho 2013 Séminaire et exposition d’installations vidéo au Patagonia International Experimental Documentary Festival,PAFID à El Bolson, Argentina. On-site video installations, the Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, "Painting in Movement" Participe à Wanderung au CEAAC Strasbourg. Tournage en Corée avec Marie Hélène Bernard. Participe à la Regionale 14 im E-WERK Freiburg,Allemagne Exposition à Hong Kong, Osage Gallery, Etudes for the XXI Century avec Kingsley NG and John Conomos. 7 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 4. Filmography Family Portrait, 13', B/W, 16mm (1971) Images of the Basel Carnival, 23', colour, Super 8 (1973) Invitation to a Journey, 9', colour (1973) Karine, 8'19", N/B, 16mm (1976) Here Rests, 6', colour, 35mm (1977) Untitled, (experimental study), 13', colour (1977) On the Platform, 10', B/W, 16mm (1978) Freeze on Step , 8'30", B/W, 35mm (1979) Colour Horizontals, 14' (1979) The Eclipse, 3' (1979) Trompe-l'œil, 7', colour (1979) Gare de Lyon, 17', colour, 16mm (1980) Gustave Moreau Museum, 12', colour, 16mm (1980) Fleetingly Glimpsed, 9', colour (1980) Artmatique, 4'15", colour (1981) A propos of "A Single Man in Paris", 11', colour, 16mm (1982) Behind the Scenes, 11', colour (1982) The Forgotten One, co-directed with Alain Longuet, 5', colour (1982) Place de la Concorde, 53', colour (1982) Just Time, 13', colour (1983) Instrumental Research at the IRCAM, 17', colour (1983) Dance of the Sparrowhawk, 13'50", colour (1984) Boulez Répons, 43', colour (1985) Video Postcards, co-directed with S. Huter and A. Longuet, 30" x 26, (1984-1986), colour (1986) Moved Left No Address, 14', colour (1986) Glances/Dance, 11', colour (1986) Snapshots, 3 Portraits, each 3’, colour (1987) (Stroppa, Manoury, Lancino) Montenvers and the Sea of Ice, co-directed with S. Huter, 8'50", colour (1987) Patch of Sky, 18', colour (1987) Final Farewell, 8', colour (1988) The Second Day, 8', colour (1988) Chili-Impressions, 12'30", colour (1989) Hong Kong Song, in collaboration with Ermeline Le Mézo, 20'50", colour (1989) The Eiffel Tower, 1', colour (1989) Solo, 4', colour (1989) The Collection – on Beaubourg, 1'40" x 16, colour (1990) On the Bridge, 4', colour (1990) Rodin/Fragments, 20', B/W, 35mm (1990) 8 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 Latitude 43, 8', colour (1991) The Mysterious Isle, 16', colour (1991) La notte delle Bugie, 10'30", colour (1993) Winter Journey, collaboration Angela Riesco, 18', colour (1993) Seven Fleeting Visions, 32' (1995) Floating Bodies, 12', colour (1997) Seven Fleeting Visions, video installation, 1997 – Frac/Alsace Collection Landscapes/Passage, video installation, 1997 – Frac/Alsace Collection Shroud, video installation, 1997 – Frac/Alsace Collection Fall with the Objects, video installation, 1997 – Frac/Alsace Collection Composers Listening, 31' (1998) 50 Years of Musique Concrete au G.R.M. Fall with the Words, video installation (2000) Crossings, video installation, 2002 – Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, 2003 / presented at the SHANGHAI Biennial, September 2004 The Circle, video installation presented in Norway, Argentina and China Canton, so Chinese, documentary 52', 2001, co-directed with Rob Rombout The Embrace, 9' (2003) Winter Landscapes, video installation, 2005, presented at the Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires Farther than Night, 9'35" (2005) Sana'a, Passages in Black, 6'45" (2007) Françoise in Memory, video installation, double projection, 2007 – Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, 2008 Look out, It's Turning, video installation, double projection. Co-directed with Guido Nussbaum, 2008 No Limits, 13', with music by Gualtiero Dazzi (2007) Changing the Gaze, 8'30" (2007) Blind Song, 4" (2008) Red Memory, co-directed with John Borst, 9'30" (2010) God Sees All, 11' (2011) Robert Cahen's videos are distributed by: Heure Exquise! (Lille), Cinédoc (Paris), Electronic Arts Intermix (New York), Vidéographe (Montréal), IMAI (Cologne) and the Lux Center for the Arts (Lincoln, NE). 2011: ROBERT CAHEN FILMS + VIDEOS 1973-2007, Box set 2 DVD (29 films) and 1 audio CD comprising 6 unpublished musical works. Includes 80 page colour booklet, with texts by Stéphane Audeguy and Hou Hanru, publ. Écart production. Artist of the Lucien Schweitzer Gallery, Luxembourg [email protected] 9 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 5. Selected Bibliography Catalogues, monographs 2011: ROBERT CAHEN FILMS + VIDEOS 1973-2007, Box set 2 DVD (29 films) and 1 audio CD comprising 6 unpublished musical works. includes 80 page colour booklet, with texts by Stéphane Audeguy and Hou Hanru, publ. Écart production. 1998: Robert Cahen's Installations, FRAC Alsace exhibition catalogue, Sélestat, R. Frieling, M.M. Gazzano, D. Coureau. 1995: Sandra Lischi, Il respiro del tempo, Italy, ETS Editions, Pisa (reissued with DVD, 2009) 1993: Robert Cahen, a Pioneer, articles by Bongiovanni, Chion, Corsino, Garrel, Fargier, Delaborde, Lischi, Noguez and Paini, catalogue published on the occasion of the artist's works being presented at the Cinémathèque de la Danse, Paris. Articles 2001: Sandra Lischi, "Journeying Words" Turbulences Vidéo, n°31, published by Vidéoformes; "Portrait of an Artist: Robert Cahen », Turbulences Vidéo, n°33, published by Vidéoformes 1996: Didier Coureau," Haiku Video ", Limelight, n°50, June 1996: "Robert Cahen, Globe-trotter and Audiovisual Composer", Le Monde, 23 April 1996 1994: Marco Maria Gazzano (ed.), "Robert Cahen: Il cinema, musica delgi occhi", Le Rose e i Quaderni, Urbino 1993: Jo Attié, "With Love from Mulhouse", Les Cahiers de Vidéochroniques, n°2, Marseille IMEREC, October. 1993: "For Whom are these Sounds", Art Press, n° 183, September 1992: Sandra Lischi, "La poetica video di Robert Cahen", Communicazioni sociale, Vol XIV 1989: Michel Corbou, "Just Time", Pixel, n°3 1986: Paul Virilio, "Just Time" and "Water of Mirrors", Cahiers du Cinéma, special issue, "Where is Video going?" 1985: "Dancing Now", Cahiers du Cinéma, n°48, January. 1985: Jean-Paul Fargier, "Cahen as a Sculptor", Vidéo Art Plastique exhibition catalogue, Hérouville St Clair. 1982: "Robert Cahen", Larousse de la Musique, Vol 1, Paris, 1981: Anne Marie Duguet, article on Robert Cahen in Video, La mémoire au poing, publ. Hachette Paris 1980: Cahen Robert, "Intervention on the Themes of the Train and of Slides", proceedings of the Urban Soundscape symposium held in Paris in May 1980. 1976: Michel Chion and Guy Reibel, article on Robert Cahen in Les musiques électroacoustiques INAGRM, Aix en Provence, Edisud 10 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 6. Publication Entrevoir. Robert Cahen Published by the Museums of Strasbourg Contributions by Joseph Attié, Héloïse Conésa, Sean Cubitt 160 pages, c. 200 illustrations ISBN : 9782351251096 Distribution Le Seuil / Volumen Price: 25 euros Extraits des textes du catalogue Note sur « L’E N T R E » (« Entrevoir ») par Joseph Attié, psychanalyste. […] « Mais le « voir » devient vite énigmatique. S’agissant d’une image cela devrait emporter sa propre évidence. Un peu comme on se verrait soimême. Mais que peut-on voir dans une image hors de l’image ? La technique du vidéaste lui permet d’insérer une infinité de choses. C’est cela qui vous regarde. Mais peut-on voir un regard ? Difficile à dire puisque nous sommes là entre le visible et l’invisible. Et c’est l’invisible ici qu’il faut interroger. La distinction majeure a été établie par Jacques Lacan1. Elle se situe entre l’œil et le regard. Il n’y a pas de limites spatiales entre les deux. Il y a une schize. Cela se passe dans le domaine psychique et renvoie à une coupure, une disjonction… Dans la perception, dans la vue d’une image « quelque chose glisse, passe, se transmet, d’étage en étage, pour y être toujours à quelque degré élidé – tel est le regard2». Tel est en effet le regard qui reste invisible. Il peut pourtant s’incarner dans « un petit détail »3, un jeu d’ombre et de lumière, une tache qui vous accroche, un fantôme que l’on croit voir passer, un simple mouvement de l’image, cela peut arrêter et parfois fasciner. On ne sait trop bien comment ni pourquoi. Quiconque, en face de l’image, du film ou de la toile, peut s’évanouir. Il s’agit évidemment du sujet de l’inconscient. Le réel vient alors vous regarder. » […] Robert Cahen, L’échange par Sean Cubitt, docteur en histoire des images et professeur « Film and Television », à l’École des Media et de la Communication de Goldsmiths, Université de Londres. […] « De toutes les œuvres présentées ici, celle qui éclaire le plus cette absence d’être, qui tourne à la hantise, est la troisième des Sept visions fugitives, où des séquences en noir et blanc entrecoupent des vues de paysages parsemés de couleurs et contenant l’image répétée d’un pétrel qui s’envole. Les quelques visions image par image d’un couple qui semble surpris dans l’acte d’amour sont reprises dans une autre œuvre, L’Étreinte, dont le titre est explicite. Dans les deux cas, la proximité du sexe avec la mort, la cruauté et, surtout, l’abandon d’identité est liée à la profonde ambiguïté de l’image elle-même, dont le rythme staccato ne parvient à se transformer ni en mouvement ni en immobilité. Dans la variante des Sept visions, la scène aboutit à une longue séquence sur un cortège funéraire à la campagne, dont le réalisme est ponctué par des retours au motif du pétrel et à d’autres séquences de l’étreinte où les corps, dans leur mode d’être extrême, 1 Lacan, J. Le Séminaire, Livre XI, Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse, Ed. Du Seuil, 1973, Paris. Texte établi par Jacques-Alain Miller. 2 Ibid. p. 70. 3 Arasse, D. On n’y voit rien, Ed. Denoël, 2000, Paris. 11 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 dissolvent leurs frontières au point de tourner à l’abstraction, dans une expérience formaliste presque pure qui, paradoxalement, produit certains des noirs les plus sensuels dont la vidéo soit capable. La séquence est entrecoupée de plans ralentis de deux rameurs qui mènent une petite barque sur un cours d’eau au milieu d’une forêt, à la façon de Charon sur le Styx. Dans la séquence finale de la troisième vision, un vieil homme portant un énorme chargement de bois se détourne pour nous regarder ; au début, on le voit à travers des filtres déformants qui le font apparaître, lui et son fardeau, comme une création générée par l’électronique, jusqu’à ce que le plan tourne au réalisme quand la caméra cesse de se jouer de l’homme et que celui-ci devient lui-même. Chez Cahen, ces figures aux limites de la visibilité, comme la queue d’une comète, précèdent la figure et la rendent étrange, ce que Lacan exprime par le jeu de mots de l’« être-ange ». Ces anges étranges entrent en confrontation avec nous dans l’entre-deux des univers, entre l’univers de l’Autre qui, dans notre rencontre avec lui, nous rend étrangers à nous-mêmes, et le monde à venir envers lequel nous avons cette lourde dette. L’étreinte propose un remboursement, ou plutôt une annulation de la dette dans l’amour. Chez le vieux paysan, nous sommes confrontés à la possibilité, différée mais paradoxalement présente, que dans l’arrière-pays de l’éthique et de la politique, dans cette zone que délimite Aristote dans ses propos sur l’amitié, il serait encore possible de porter sa charge, de devenir son ami. Et dans les motifs des funérailles et de la barque surgit cet autre grand thème des œuvres récentes de Cahen : le rachat de l’avenir par le passage à travers la mort. » […] Robert Cahen. Entrevoir. par Héloïse Conésa, conservatrice du patrimoine au MAMCS et commissaire de l’exposition […] « Dans certaines vidéos de Robert Cahen point une esthétique de l’affect portée à son paroxysme, qui enjoint le spectateur à une réception émotive des œuvres qu’il regarde et à en établir une « connaissance pathétique4 », dans le frémissement du passage. Mais ces vidéos fabriquent un « entrevoir » qui touche non seulement les apparences visibles mais sollicite aussi un ensemble de transpositions analogiques de sensations. Ces correspondances synesthésiques où le chuchotement d’un regard, la musicalité d’une main, le silence d’un rayon de lumière … installent le spectateur dans une pensée visuelle poétique qui sont très éloignées de la banale convivialité du quotidien manifeste dans d’autres œuvres contemporaines. En s’efforçant de dépasser un pur présent, tout en explorant les invariants de la vie, que sont la rencontre avec l’esprit d’un lieu, autrui, la mort... Robert Cahen affirme la spécificité de son esthétique où l’ « entrevoir », image hantée par ce qui ne s’y trouve pas, n’exclut pas un regard habité transperçant le visible. » 4 Pierre Klossowski, Un si funeste désir, Paris, éd. Gallimard, 1994, p.202. 12 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 7. Educational and Cultural Programme For a detailed programme (dates and times), see www.musees.strasbourg.eu Guided Visits Thursday 12.30 pm, 20 March - 24 April "An Hour - A Work", Visits Friday 11 April, 12.30 pm Fleetingly Glimpsed, 1980 "Brief Encouters", Visit Saturday 22 March, 2.30 pm The artist will be present Workshop for Teenagers & Adults Saturday 19 April, 10 am – 12 pm "Awkward Movements" "Looking at Art", Workshop for 7 - 12 year olds Saturdays 5, 12, 19 April, 2.30 pm - 4.30 pm "Fast Forward / Slow Motion" Cycle of 2 Workshops for 7 / 12 year olds (During the Easter Break) 29 & 30 April, 2.30 pm - 5 pm "Memory" AT THE MUSEUM AUDITORIUM In connection with the exhibition, three talks on the artist’s work will be given at the Museum Auditorium, including projection of Robert Cahen's videos. - 26 March 2014 at 7 pm "Robert Cahen. Glimpsing the Elsewhere 1." By Tiphaine Larroque. In retouching his images, Robert Cahen proposes personal visions of what it means to be "on the move.” These visions of "the elsewhere", poetic or humorous, nostalgic or empathetic, narrative or abstract, rekindle our awareness of self and other. Tiphaine Larroque holds a PhD in the History of Art and teaches at the Faculty of Arts in the University of Strasbourg. - l4 April 2014 at 7 pm Robert Cahen. Glimpsing the Elsewhere 2. Images in movement and literature. By Tiphaine Larroque. In 1972 and 1973, Robert Cahen made two videos including texts by his friend, the psychoanalyst Jo Attié. This work in collaboration, creating links between sounds, text and images is distinct from the rôle played by quotations in two other works dating from 1989 and 1997. These creations bring into play the vernacular literature of the countries filmed in, while respecting their artistic autonomy and their specific poetic universe. - 15 April 2014 at 7 pm Ekphrasis of Karine. By Jean-Luc Nancy Karine is a video by Robert Cahen, the subject of which can be summed up thus: "portrait of a little girl growing up". Ekphrasis is a term used in ancient Greek to refer to a commentary on a visual work or, more precisely, to the exercise of making the work speak, of extracting speech from it, or of speaking from it (ek - phrasis). The film is silent. The little girl does not speak. The film simply gives her name as a title for its images. How can she be left to speak? Be made to speak? About herself? How to make us speak about her? And how is this "about her" to be understood? Jean-Luc Nancy is a philosopher and Emeritus Professor of the University of Strasbourg, where he taught while being regularly invited as visiting professor by overseas universities. Admission free for each event, subject to availability of seats. 2 April 2014, 8 pm. Evening organized by Philippe Lepeut, artist and HEAR instructor, with students from the Arts Hors Format / Phonon-Lab Research Group of the Haute École des Arts du Rhin. Concert + Film Show, "Attack, Release and Sustain", Robert Cahen is an emblematic figure of video art, but his journey through images is rooted in music, which he studied with Pierre Schaeffer. A spatialized performance with short pieces of concrete music, inspired by the artist's creative adventure recounted in sound and images. In partnership with HEAR. Tickets: 6 euros (reduced: 4,50 euros) 13 PRESS FOLDER « VISIONS GLIMPSED. ROBERT CAHEN » MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN, STRASBOURG, 15 MARCH – 11 MAY 2014 8. Visitor Information Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de la Ville de Strasbourg Getting to the Museum 1 place Hans Jean Arp, Strasbourg Tél. : +33 (0)3 88 23 31 31 Tram line B, direction Lingolsheim Tiergaertel Tram stop, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. Opening times Open every day, 10 am - 6 pm except Monday Special times are available for group visits organized by the Museums Education Department or accompanied by guides from the Strasbourg Tourist Office. Groups Telephone booking essential for groups of more than 10 +33/(0)3 88 88 50 50 (Monday to Friday 8.30 am - 12.30 pm). Tickets 7 € (reduced 3,5 €). Admission free visitors under age 18 carte Culture card holders Atout Voir card holders Museums Pass Musées card holders Édu’Pass card holders visitors with disabilities students of art, history of art and architecture persons seeking employment recipients of social assistance badge-holding CUS employees Admission free to all 1st Sunday in the month 1 day pass: 12 €, reduced 6 € (access to all Strasbourg museums and temporary exhibitions), Pass 3 jours : 18 €, tarif réduit 12 € (access to all Strasbourg museums and temporary exhibitions), Museums Pass Musées – 1 year, 250 museums: individual 79 euros, family 144 euros (access to more than 250 museums in Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland and Germany). 14 ENTREVOIR ROBERT CAHEN Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain 15 mars - 11 mai 2014 LISTE DES VISUELS TÉLÉCHARGEABLES SUR LE SITE WWW.MUSEES.STRASBOURG.EU 1. Robert Cahen, L’Entre, 2014 12’, projection murale en boucle, couleur, muet Image : Robert Cahen/Montage, effets spéciaux : Thierry Maury Production : Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 2. Robert Cahen, L’Entre, 2014, 12’, projection murale en boucle, couleur, muet. Image: Robert Cahen Montage, effets spéciaux : Thierry Maury. Production : Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 3. Robert Cahen, L’Entr’aperçu, 1980, 9', vidéo, couleur, sonore. Production : INA, Groupe Recherche Images, Serge Com. Effets spéciaux: Stéphane Huter. Image, montage et bande sonore : Robert Cahen © ADAGP Paris 2014 4. Robert Cahen, Tombe (avec les objets), 1997 23’, projection vidéo en boucle, couleur, muet. Image: Robert Cahen. Montage et effet spéciaux: Christian Cuilleron. Collection du Fonds régional d’art contemporain d’Alsace, 1998 et de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 5. Robert Cahen, La Barre jaune, 2014, 6’, projection murale en boucle, couleur, sonore. Image: Rob Rombout. Montage : Thierry Maury. Production : Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 6. Robert Cahen, La Traversée du rail, 2014, 7’30’’, projection en boucle sur feuille écran posé au sol, couleur, sonore. Image: Robert Cahen. Production : Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 Demande à adresser à : Service communication des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg Julie Barth 2 place du Château, Strasbourg [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 15 Fax + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 42 7. Robert Cahen, Entrevoir, 2014, 18’, installation vidéo, double projection panoramique en boucle, sonore, couleur. Steadicam: Bruno Soupart. Montage : Thierry Maury. Conception sonore : Francisco Ruiz de Infante (extraits sonores des Fraises sauvages d’Ingmar Bergman). Studio Autour de la terre. Production : Boulevard des Productions – Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 8. Robert Cahen, Traverses, 2002, 30’, projection vidéo en boucle, couleur, muet. Effets spéciaux : Patrick Zanoli. Avec le soutien de : Le Fresnoy (Studio National des Arts contemporains), CICV Pierre Schaeffer, Montbéliard-Belfort, ZKM-Karlsruhe, Drac Alsace. Collection du Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, Harris Museum, Preston, Grande-Bretagne, et collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 9. Robert Cahen, Portraits, 2013. 5’, projection en boucle sur feuille transparente, noir et blanc, muet Image: Robert Cahen. Production : Pixea Studio. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 10. Robert Cahen, Sanaa, passages en noir, 2007, 7’07”, projection vidéo, couleur, sonore. Image: Robert Cahen. Montage, effets vidéo : Thierry Maury. Musique : extrait de La Passion selon Saint-Jean de J.S. Bach. Production : Boulevard des Productions. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014 11. Robert Cahen, Le Maître du temps - Pierre Boulez dirige "Mémoriale", 2011 . Interprété par l’Ensemble Intercontemporain, 7’, deux projections HD en boucle sur une surface, couleur, sonore. Guillaume Brault, chef opérateur, Frédéric Prin, ingénieur du son. Production : Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains. Collection de l’artiste © ADAGP Paris 2014