CITIES
Wordly cities are perceived in moving flows that are both slow and rapid. Buildings, sidewalks, streets become one with passers-by. They merge together and combine theirs characteristics, shapes, colors, substance - as well as their identity.
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Bodymap in Kunming, 2020, 5'28''
A woman wanders the streets in Kunming like in a dream. She sensually roams over the shapes of a monumental citymap which unfolds under her haunted footsteps.
She walks with care over each ideograms while her sensations arise. She deeply immerges herself in the patterns and symbols of the city. She shares her thoughts with us.
This wanderer woman is at the same time intimate and anonymous, sensual and invisible. While we follow her hypnotic steps, we can guess her moving body, her long hair, her red lips. Performer: Julia Guo / Voice: Nathalie Sandoz
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All Women in Her, 2'38'', 2020
At the foot of the Forbidden City, a woman recalls the story of all the women who sacrificed their lives to allow her to be here, standing, alive, free
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I am a Chinese Woman (Beijing), 2019, 3'34'' (excerpt)
By the Forbidden City in Beijing a woman is offering her thoughts while she stares at us, smoking, reflecting, improvising.
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Frictions, 2001, 4'35'' (excerpt)
Frictions presents a piece of successions and rehearsals assembled into images of the city. This city is made of departures, incessant returns, clashes, elisions. Some are intersected by others. The traffic, the cars, the buses, the ground, the sidewalk all turn into hybrids. Everything is saturated, condensed in a succession of instants that get entangled, as if no one ever really left the place. The background sounds are also stressed by this repetition that encircles the city in its phonic pulses.
Pal Video 1'41'' produced by Catherine Gfeller and the RTBF, Brussells, 2001. Soundtrack: Patrick van Loo.
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Vas à venir, 2006, 4'20" (excerpt)
The Sevillian crowd stomps the ground like a Flamenco dancer to return at regular intervals towards the camera: the only stable, fixed point in the middle of this incessant flux.
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His Car Her Hair, 2006, 3'17'' (excerpt)
Driving through Los Angeles with the wind, the city, palmtrees but without faces or names.
Speed takes over and the story may begin …
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Woman Night (Guangzhou), 2018, 4'57'' (excerpt)
In the deep night, a woman goes through the streets in Guangzhou. She loses her sense of identity. She imagines becoming part of the city: her body, a long street with no end - she embodies this city, with its traffic and people. The city is moving inside of her and becomes part of her. Like a lava flow she will carry everything down to the river.
Voice: Lingjun YUE
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Witness in the hutongs, 2,43'', 2020
Une actrice marche dans les ruelles sombres de Pékin et se glisse dans les peau de l'héroïne du film de Billy Wilder qui est projeté sur les murs des hutongs.
Elle ferme les yeux pour mieux incorporer le rôle en elle et vivre ce drame de l'intérieur. Elle se transforme en témoin silencieuse.
-
Reminiscences, 2005-2009, 3'12" (excerpt)
Close-up of faces and city traffic successively go through the video camera and our own thoughts.
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RHYTHMS I, 2'15'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
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RHYTHMS II, 3'33'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
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RHYTHMS III, 3'07'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
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Anchorage, 2014, 3'43'' (excerpt)
How can one find landmarks in the middle of the effervescence of Johannesburg? Reciting the first names are so many points of anchorage.
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Pulses, 2003, 2'41"
From one point to the other, the bus crosses the city. From one city to the other, the city floats through the bus as it swallows the transiting passengers.
-
Toy City II, 2012, 2'31''
Mirros and reflections given by the city itself are opportunites to play further and question our own identity.
-
Maïdan Memorial Portraits 4'44'', 2018 (Excerpt))
On Maidan Square in the heart of Kiev, a young man pays tribute to the victims of the 2014 protests during the war in Donbass.
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M like Maidan, 2018, 5'22'' (excerpt)
M like Maidan is created in the shape of a musical score. Visitors’ eyes drift from one screen to another in order to keep track of city’s upheaval, while the audios bring emotional messages. Audio tapes diffuse passages taken from poems and slogans uttered during the Euromaïdan Revolution. The movement of the images frees people’s memory and their vision of the war becomes superimposed with today’s vision, similar to subliminal images of nightmares.
-
Kyiv Wanderings, 2007, 5'52'' (excerpt)
This woman passes by the places of conflicts and tries to heal the wounds of the war. Her thoughts emerge little by little as she walks. Their rhythm is slow and fosters a certain meditation. She seems to bring a sort of solution, as if her steps, her thoughts could bring the denouement of the conflicts.
-
Shards of Beirut, 2014, 9'13'' (excerpt)
The city of Beirut is filmed through the subjectivity of one of its inhabitant, Joanna. Coming out in the street for the first time after the war, inspired by her ramblings through Hamra at dawn, she makes her thoughts available to us all.
-
Di Notte, 2004, 8'42" (excerpt)
In Rome’s suburbs, a woman is prowling around a building, hugging the walls like a shady lover to express her passion. The repetitive structure of the architecture reflects the rhythms of her monologue.
Voices: Alessandra Cianchetta and Catherine Gfeller
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Fugues of Cities, 2016, 6'06'' (excerpt)
The video sequences unveil the city of Bern by a shifting, dynamic editing where passers-by, traffic, buses, cars, trams, streets and architecture are deeply layered.
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Directional Piece, 2005-2009, 7'07" (excerpt)
The diffraction of perceptions contaminates the intersections of Times Square. They become places, cities, continents or even frames for international conversations. The saturation, the un-readability, the confusion all become a secret doorway. In its very insistence, the superabundance becomes a rocking that mesmerizes us into a lull.
-
Running to the same Goal, 2014, 2'46''
Destinies are getting crossed and mixed up to the rythm of men and women's back-and-forth, in Johannesburg.
-
Moving Identity, 2013, 2'07''
Streets in Johannesburg disturb identities between urban and human. The names of the streets vary with politics, streets intermingle with faces, sounds are superimposed with thoughts and we loose track of our benchmarks.
-
She is coming II, 2012, 2'44''
Her own presence rises like a slow and transparent apparition between traffic, architecture and others. A dream that comes true.
-
Woman Wind Wandering (Guangzhou), 4'21'', 2016-2020
Jia-li, a downtown Guangzhou resident walks through a park; she is seeking her way through trees and buildings. Along this initiatory path, she is swaying through her ancestral roots and her contemporary life. Performer: FU Ting
-
Memories are deep in the River, 2018, 9’22'' (excerpt)
Huang leaves the city and goes to the river "Pearl". She starts thinking about the journey the river makes. Where does it start and where does it go? What has it seen? Down here by the river childhood memories, memories about her family, are coming back.
-
Pause, 2014, 2'42''
Transient fiction evovling with each sensation.
-
Decision, 2014, 9'05'' (excerpt)
In the packed streets of Johannesburg, two strangers follow each other without being aware of it. Their singular journey will lead them to the exact same decision.
-
Femme Fatale, 2014, 1'19''
Femme fatale or when a daily scene meets a real event.
-
A Woman, a Train, 2018, 8'18'' (excerpt)
A woman sitting in a train looks with passion through the window. Landscapes, cities, voices of others, the rhythm of the railroad influence her thoughts and her visions.
-
Decline and Regeneration, 2014, 1'42''
Enigmatic messages are sent out. Who is able to decifer them?
Voice: Bokang Koatja
Bodymap in Kunming, 2020, 5'28''
A woman wanders the streets in Kunming like in a dream. She sensually roams over the shapes of a monumental citymap which unfolds under her haunted footsteps.
She walks with care over each ideograms while her sensations arise. She deeply immerges herself in the patterns and symbols of the city. She shares her thoughts with us.
This wanderer woman is at the same time intimate and anonymous, sensual and invisible. While we follow her hypnotic steps, we can guess her moving body, her long hair, her red lips. Performer: Julia Guo / Voice: Nathalie Sandoz
All Women in Her, 2'38'', 2020
At the foot of the Forbidden City, a woman recalls the story of all the women who sacrificed their lives to allow her to be here, standing, alive, free
I am a Chinese Woman (Beijing), 2019, 3'34'' (excerpt)
By the Forbidden City in Beijing a woman is offering her thoughts while she stares at us, smoking, reflecting, improvising.
Frictions, 2001, 4'35'' (excerpt)
Frictions presents a piece of successions and rehearsals assembled into images of the city. This city is made of departures, incessant returns, clashes, elisions. Some are intersected by others. The traffic, the cars, the buses, the ground, the sidewalk all turn into hybrids. Everything is saturated, condensed in a succession of instants that get entangled, as if no one ever really left the place. The background sounds are also stressed by this repetition that encircles the city in its phonic pulses.
Pal Video 1'41'' produced by Catherine Gfeller and the RTBF, Brussells, 2001. Soundtrack: Patrick van Loo.
Vas à venir, 2006, 4'20" (excerpt)
The Sevillian crowd stomps the ground like a Flamenco dancer to return at regular intervals towards the camera: the only stable, fixed point in the middle of this incessant flux.
His Car Her Hair, 2006, 3'17'' (excerpt)
Driving through Los Angeles with the wind, the city, palmtrees but without faces or names.
Speed takes over and the story may begin …
Woman Night (Guangzhou), 2018, 4'57'' (excerpt)
In the deep night, a woman goes through the streets in Guangzhou. She loses her sense of identity. She imagines becoming part of the city: her body, a long street with no end - she embodies this city, with its traffic and people. The city is moving inside of her and becomes part of her. Like a lava flow she will carry everything down to the river.
Voice: Lingjun YUE
Witness in the hutongs, 2,43'', 2020
Une actrice marche dans les ruelles sombres de Pékin et se glisse dans les peau de l'héroïne du film de Billy Wilder qui est projeté sur les murs des hutongs.
Elle ferme les yeux pour mieux incorporer le rôle en elle et vivre ce drame de l'intérieur. Elle se transforme en témoin silencieuse.
Reminiscences, 2005-2009, 3'12" (excerpt)
Close-up of faces and city traffic successively go through the video camera and our own thoughts.
RHYTHMS I, 2'15'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
RHYTHMS II, 3'33'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
RHYTHMS III, 3'07'', 2023 (excerpt)
In March 2023, this video was displayed in a monumental video triptych in Jadat Quba Square downtown Madinah city (Saudi Arabia) in the middle of passers-by and inhabitants, like a mirror held to their daily life. The exhibitions at Madinah Art Center and at King Salman International Convention Center were presented parallel to many other events (workshops, NFT panel, roundtables, debates). This pioneer project interprets in a poetic way traditional as well as contemporary aspects of the holy city of Madinah through large scale photographic compositions, videos and texts showcased in a gigantic praxinoscope. The visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the many different rhythms of wandering, whether they are spiritual, mental, physical or metaphorical.
Anchorage, 2014, 3'43'' (excerpt)
How can one find landmarks in the middle of the effervescence of Johannesburg? Reciting the first names are so many points of anchorage.
Pulses, 2003, 2'41"
From one point to the other, the bus crosses the city. From one city to the other, the city floats through the bus as it swallows the transiting passengers.
Toy City II, 2012, 2'31''
Mirros and reflections given by the city itself are opportunites to play further and question our own identity.
Maïdan Memorial Portraits 4'44'', 2018 (Excerpt))
On Maidan Square in the heart of Kiev, a young man pays tribute to the victims of the 2014 protests during the war in Donbass.
M like Maidan, 2018, 5'22'' (excerpt)
M like Maidan is created in the shape of a musical score. Visitors’ eyes drift from one screen to another in order to keep track of city’s upheaval, while the audios bring emotional messages. Audio tapes diffuse passages taken from poems and slogans uttered during the Euromaïdan Revolution. The movement of the images frees people’s memory and their vision of the war becomes superimposed with today’s vision, similar to subliminal images of nightmares.
Kyiv Wanderings, 2007, 5'52'' (excerpt)
This woman passes by the places of conflicts and tries to heal the wounds of the war. Her thoughts emerge little by little as she walks. Their rhythm is slow and fosters a certain meditation. She seems to bring a sort of solution, as if her steps, her thoughts could bring the denouement of the conflicts.
Shards of Beirut, 2014, 9'13'' (excerpt)
The city of Beirut is filmed through the subjectivity of one of its inhabitant, Joanna. Coming out in the street for the first time after the war, inspired by her ramblings through Hamra at dawn, she makes her thoughts available to us all.
Di Notte, 2004, 8'42" (excerpt)
In Rome’s suburbs, a woman is prowling around a building, hugging the walls like a shady lover to express her passion. The repetitive structure of the architecture reflects the rhythms of her monologue.
Voices: Alessandra Cianchetta and Catherine Gfeller
Fugues of Cities, 2016, 6'06'' (excerpt)
Directional Piece, 2005-2009, 7'07" (excerpt)
The diffraction of perceptions contaminates the intersections of Times Square. They become places, cities, continents or even frames for international conversations. The saturation, the un-readability, the confusion all become a secret doorway. In its very insistence, the superabundance becomes a rocking that mesmerizes us into a lull.
Running to the same Goal, 2014, 2'46''
Destinies are getting crossed and mixed up to the rythm of men and women's back-and-forth, in Johannesburg.
Moving Identity, 2013, 2'07''
Streets in Johannesburg disturb identities between urban and human. The names of the streets vary with politics, streets intermingle with faces, sounds are superimposed with thoughts and we loose track of our benchmarks.
She is coming II, 2012, 2'44''
Her own presence rises like a slow and transparent apparition between traffic, architecture and others. A dream that comes true.
Woman Wind Wandering (Guangzhou), 4'21'', 2016-2020
Jia-li, a downtown Guangzhou resident walks through a park; she is seeking her way through trees and buildings. Along this initiatory path, she is swaying through her ancestral roots and her contemporary life. Performer: FU Ting
Memories are deep in the River, 2018, 9’22'' (excerpt)
Huang leaves the city and goes to the river "Pearl". She starts thinking about the journey the river makes. Where does it start and where does it go? What has it seen? Down here by the river childhood memories, memories about her family, are coming back.
Pause, 2014, 2'42''
Transient fiction evovling with each sensation.
Decision, 2014, 9'05'' (excerpt)
In the packed streets of Johannesburg, two strangers follow each other without being aware of it. Their singular journey will lead them to the exact same decision.
Femme Fatale, 2014, 1'19''
Femme fatale or when a daily scene meets a real event.
A Woman, a Train, 2018, 8'18'' (excerpt)
A woman sitting in a train looks with passion through the window. Landscapes, cities, voices of others, the rhythm of the railroad influence her thoughts and her visions.
Decline and Regeneration, 2014, 1'42''
Enigmatic messages are sent out. Who is able to decifer them?
Voice: Bokang Koatja