05.19.2009
Dédale
French filmmaker Pierre Coulibeuf, a widely celebrated artist with extensive international exhibitions credentials, produced his first project created in Brazil. It is a film and a film installation inspired by the creative universe of the Brazilian painter Iberê Camargo (1914-1994) and by the architecture of the building designed by Portuguese Álvaro Siza for the headquarters of the Foundation which bears the Brazilian master’s name. Internationally renowned for works inspired by the artistic and creative universe of Jan Fabre, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Meg Stuart, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Marina Abramovic, among others, Coulibeuf shot the film Dédale in Porto Alegre, which resulted in a film installation that, between June 4 and August 30, will be on view at the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre. The project take place at the França.Br 2009, The Year of France in Brazil (April 21st to November 15th), organized in France by the General French Commissariat, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs , Ministry of Culture and Communication and for the Culturesfrance, and in Brazil by the General Brazilian Commissariat, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Curated by Gaudêncio Fidelis, who has a PhD in Art History from the State University of New York (SUNY), and is founder and former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rio Grande do Sul, the project presents a film installation composed of three projections in video and twelve large scale photographs (printed from negatives from the rushes, not included in the film’s final cut), as well as the release of a scholarly catalog with texts by several contributors as well as symposium on the work of Coulibeuf. According to Fidelis, the purpose of the initiative is to promote new avenues of interpretation and legibility for the work of both artists. “The aim of the project is to expand the realm of interpretation of Camargo’s work and establish new possibilities for the reception of his legacy in the international context and, at the same time, bring to Brazil the work of Coulibeuf, whose work has great significance internationally and great relevance for contemporary art."
The idea for Dédale - the name of the skilled and ingenious architect and sculptor that, according to Greek mythology, built a labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur by order of king Minos, arose from the initial contact Coulibeuf had with the work of the master expressionist and the architecture of the Foundation’s headquarters. “I was impressed by Iberê’s paintings and the way they influenced Álvaro Siza's project. I thought the architecture was really special and very attractive because of its structure, which resembles a labyrinth”, explains the filmmaker. “At the same time, this circular image creates a constant idea of motion and dynamics, characteristics also found in Iberê Camargo’s paintings and which I could connect to the mythology which gives formal structure to the film”, he added.
The project involved two years of research on the collection of the foundation and Iberê Camargo’s oeuvre, as well as a detailed study of Siza’s building. For the shooting, done in March of this year, Coulibeuf relied on a team of artists and a technical crew with professionals from Brazil and abroad, including Lula Carvalho, a director of photography whose works include the acclaimed ‘The Elite Squad’, winner of the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, and Frenchman Bruno Mantovani, resident composer for the Lille National Orchestra (France), composer of the film’s original score.
Shot in 35mm and running for 26 minutes and 46 seconds, the film is an experimental fiction that finds the real structure in Siza’s building for questioning the difference between fiction and reality developed through characters portrayed by actor Matheus Walter and Portuguese performer living in Berlin, Vania Rovisco. “Just like in a labyrinth, these two characters, also inspired by the mythological figures of Ariadne and Theseus, lose and find themselves within the spaces of the construction, at times confronted with corridors, unsure of where they will be lead; and at other times faced with the creative spirit of Iberê Camargo”, explains the filmmaker, who selected a series of abstract paintings loaded with dark colors, produced mostly in the 1960s by Iberê, to create the exhibition assembled especially for shooting.
In addition to the Foundation, shooting locations included the lakeside in Ipanema, in Porto Alegre, Cais do Porto (Porto Alegre’s harbor area), the city of Guaíba and Lopo Gonçalves street, home to Iberê in the 1980s. “They are all places that reflect the labyrinthine structure we see in the building, and the film is a simulation of it”, said the filmmaker. “I hope that the viewers will lose themselves within these intricate pathways, sometimes faced by Iberê's work and at other times not. I’ve always said that it is when we are lost, that we end up ourselves”, he concludes.
Dédale is a project commissioned by the Iberê Camargo Foundation, with executive production by Regards Productions, coordinated by Chantal Delanoë and production in Brazil carried out by Surreal Produção Audiovisual, with production coordination by Marta Biavaschi and Mariana Xavier.
Technical and Artistic Specifications of the Film
Title: DÉDALE
A film by Pierre Coulibeuf
Actors: Vania Rovisco, Matheus Walter
Original score: Bruno Mantovani
Location: Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
Dialogue: inspired by Ovid and Gertrude Stein
Format: 35 mm color, Dolby SR
Original Negative: Kodak 35 mm (35mm camera Moviecam Compact MKII– lenses set Zeiss and 300 Canon)
Duration: 26´40”
Year: 2009
Language: English
Genre: Experimental Fiction
Director of Photography: Lula Carvalho
Sound Engineer: Andre Sittoni
Editor: Thierry Rouden
Executive Producer: Chantal Delanoë / Regards Productions (France)
Production coordination in Brazil: Marta Biavaschi / Surreal Produção Audiovisual (Brazil)
A curatorial project by Gaudêncio Fidelis
Commissioned by the Iberê Camargo Foundation, Brazil
|
