Water Diary: A dialogue between artist videos and amateur films
25 April–8 September 2013
Frac Haute-Normandie
3, place des Martyrs-de-la-Résistance
76300 Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France
T 33 (0)2 35 72 27 51
Pôle Regional des Savoirs
115, boulevard de l’Europe
76100 Rouen, France
Maria Thereza Alves, Fernand Bignon, Johanna Billing, Olga Chernysheva, Robert Dasché, Édith Dekyndt, Peter Downsbrough, Marguerite Duras, Cyprien Gaillard, Éric Hattan, Joan Jonas, Thomas Köner, Jacques Laquièvre, Jacques Martin-Pigeon, Nadia Myre, Cécile Paris, Robert Prieur, Henri Sergent, Roman Signer and Kristina Solomoukha
As part of the Normandy Impressionist Festival, the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain (Frac) has partnered with Pôle Image Haute-Normandie to develop a project that explores the generic theme of water through the media of film. Film is unquestionably one of the most well-established practices in the history of modernity, in the same way as the Impressionist movement. Today, film constitutes a unique visual and artistic culture per se, which both institutions work to preserve and study. This original project by the Frac and Audiovisual Memory Department of Pôle Image provides an opportunity to consider the moving image using an approach that combines artistic, professional and amateur practices.
To create this dialogue, the Frac Haute-Normandie has selected films by nationally and internationally renowned artists whose works are featured in French public collections and which were, for the most part, produced between 1990 and 2010. All the archive films chosen by the Pôle Image are from its extensive collection of 6,200 amateur works shot between 1920 and 1980. Together, they form an impressive repository of visual memory, for review and re-evaluation in the light of contemporary creation. The films, made for the most part in the Normandy area, are set primarily along the meanders of the Seine. The works deal chiefly with the economic relationship to water, and summer activities, but also contain an intrinsic aesthetic dimension.
This dialogue is, therefore, a chance to become acquainted with one of Normandy’s most comprehensive amateur film collections with works by artists of many different nationalities. Comparing and contrasting their works brings into sharp focus the aesthetic issues facing each one.
Véronique Souben,
Director, Frac Haute-Normandie
Denis Darroy,
Director, Pôle Image Haute-Normandie
Press contact: Sergine Gallenne
T 33 (0)2 35 72 27 51 / sergine.com.frachn@orange.fr
FRAC Haute-Normandie is funded by Haute-Normandie Regional Council, the Ministry of Culture and Communication / DRAC Haute-Normandie and Sotteville-lès-Rouen City Council.
