Temps Tritures

AGNES VARDA / TEPMS TRITURES

Exhibition at LVMH
MOET-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton
326 Avenue Louise -
Blue Tower 1050 Bruxelles

curated by Elena Sorokina


Celebrated for her distinctive, complex and poetic films since the 1960s, Agnes Varda has also been a prolific artist. Her compelling art projects often explore a wide range of formal and thematic concerns already present in her films. Blends of fiction and documentary, collage of success and failure, solitude and happiness, resonate in a novel way in Varda's photo and video installations, as well as her photographic series.

The present display includes recent projects by Agnes Varda and proudly presents the new work created especially for the exhibition. Entitled "Temps Triturés", this multi-screen installation is based on several fragments from Varda's films. These fragments bring together different locations and times - from the 1960s through the 2000s and from the rural French landscapes to the beaches of Los Angeles. They originate from the iconic "Cleo from 5 to 7" (1962) and "Le Bonheur" (1965), the very personal "Documenteur" (1981) and the acclaimed "Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse" (2000). "Vagabounde" (1985) completes the installation through a series of photographic stills.

From each of these films, Varda selected a short fragment which suspends for a while the time-flow of the respective sequence, cuts the narration and stops the continuation of the story. For the spectator, suspension of time becomes the suspension of senses, a reflective moment transposed from Varda's films to the space of art. The actual time of the installation thus becomes - as suggested in the title - "trituré". This French word has multiple meanings, relating to both cinema, and visual arts. It can signify "shredded", "cut in pieces", like in a montage. It can equally describe a sculptural gesture - "to press", or "to model". In the installation, Varda plays with all of these possible readings. She shreds and re-models the time of her images through the suddenly accelerated succession of stills, or a slow motion, locating them between "moving image" - like in cinema, and "still image" - like in photography. Using the conceptual and expressive potentialities of these fragments, Varda creates in her new work a fascinating variation on cinematic time.
Curatorial text by Elena Sorokina