True to its core, prisme pushes cinema outside the theater in order to, this time, recontextualize it in the pompous Art déco decor of the Salon Mauduit, a formerly coveted ballroom of the Nantes high society – where it was even possible to relish in the joys of indoor roller skating (!). It is thus as amateurs of artistic friction that we will roam in this vast space, from screen to screen, from supercharged color to black and white oscillations, from hypnotic geometries to sculptures of cinetic light.
This is the occasion to (re)discover historical works of Lis Rhodes, Schmelzdahin and Joost Rekveld, emblematic figures in the history of experimental film, renowned for their formal, technical and theoretical explorations, alongside the contemporary musician Yann Leguay, himself an amateur of poetic diversions giving birth to unidentified sonic objects.
PROGRAM:
15 Tage Fieber by Schmelzdahin (DE)
1989 / Super 8 / sound / 15′ / proposed by LaborBerlin
“We were slightly feverish when we started working with a particular color process. During development, we obtained marvellous blue and yellow tones, as well as coloured solarizations. Amazed, we used this process for 15 days. Then the fever subsided. At the time, we were listening to the music of Gilbert and Lewis, and that is why we put a piece of it on the soundtrack.”
— Jürgen Reble.
Music by Bruce Gilbert & Graham Lewis.
#11 (MAREY <-> MOIRE) by Joost Rekveld (NL)
1999 / 35mm / sonore / 21′ / suggested by Filmwerkplaats
# 11 (MAREY <-> MOIRE) is a film in which all images were generated by the discontinuous recording of a line’s movement. This is a film about intermittence which is at the bottom line of cinema. This manner of “divide and conquer” is in the end our only way of apprehending and manipulating the flux which surrounds us.
7 Haïkus For a Turntable by Yann Leguay (BE)
2023 / performance with turntables and various objects / 25′ / suggested by Mire
“7 haikus for a turntable is a performance in which I seek, at the same time, to concentrate the story of the discoveries I have made over the years working on vinyl records but also change the relationship we have with music and sound. By moving the habit from conventional concert to through situations of musical objects. This is the video recording of a performance between music and installation. Through the history of the vinyl record and exploring various unexpected ways of reading this medium, this performance sensitive oscillates between old techniques of disc reading and new technologies of subtle and playful way.”
Light Music by Lis Rhodes (GB)
1975 / Expanded cinema device / 16mm / 25′ / suggested by Mire
“Light Music was first shown as a two part 14 minute videotape at the Serpentine Gallery in the Festival of Independent Video (1975). In 1977 it was screened in Paris as a two screen 16 mm film. It is more or less different every time it is screened. I thought the audience would move around – leave – return – and chat throughout – and they did and still do. Now sometimes members of the audience become performers, performing within and to the light of Light Music. This impromptu performance is often taken away as a digital record of the viewer as performer.” –L.R.