13: Diego Marcon, Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, Camille Henrot
In the presence of Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy.
Courtisane is een platform voor film en audiovisuele kunsten. In de vorm van een jaarlijks festival, filmvertoningen, gesprekken en publicaties onderzoeken we de relaties tussen beeld en wereld, esthetiek en politiek, experiment en engagement.
Courtisane is a platform for film and audiovisual arts. Through a yearly festival, film screenings, talks and publications, we research the relations between image and world, aesthetics and politics, experiment and engagement.
In the presence of Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy.
In staccato flashes, Macron illuminates eerie figures in the dark rooms of Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio in Como – images that resonate with its burdened political history. He uses contrasting technologies – 35mm and CGI animation – and represents two opposing attitudes in film: structural cinema and horror. The rigid formal structure of the film is undercut by the disquieting actions of the protagonists: a man jumping off a balcony, the fearful glance of a child looking into the lens.
“All this material was found. From what we can gather, it makes up some sort of psychological test. A couple, seemingly non-professionals, created the test. We don’t have their names, only their initials: B and K. In a box we found two film cans and a folder. Inside film can A there was a roll of 16mm picture negative. Inside film can B there was a roll of 16mm sound negative. Inside the folder there was a typed text. Underneath the title, Comfort Stations, it is stated that it is the transcript of a sound recording. The original recording – if such a recording exists – was not in the box. In a sleeve taped to the inside of film can A, there was an additional text, which appears to be a short description of the test.” (AD & JDGM)
Camille Henrot’s latest film, Saturday, delves deep into what philosopher Ernst Bloch called “the principle of hope”, which structures our aspirations for immediate, private utopias as well as for radical change. The film focuses on the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church, an evangelical millenarian Christian denomination that celebrates the Sabbath and practices baptism rituals on Saturday. Shot mostly in 3D, the film combines scenes recorded at SDA Church sites with images of news broadcast and medical tests; together, they immerse us in a parallel world of belief and hope for a better life.