THE LEMAITRE COLLECTION BETWEEN VIDEO ART AND CINEMA

Curated by Maria Laura Cavaliere

In partnership with Villa Medici Film Festival

The Isabelle and Jean-Conrad Lemaître collection represents one of the rare private collections entirely dedicated to video art and consists of over 150 works by international artists from five continents. The French collectors played a central role in the enhancement of video art, thanks to numerous initiatives promoting the work of young talents, such as the establishment of the Prix Studio Collector, rewarding creations of emerging artists, students of Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in Tourcoing, France. The selection includes both historical works and new acquisitions and traces the recent history of video art, characterized by the influence of cinema as an aesthetic horizon and cultural model.

 

MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, ROMA

More information here

 

PART I – THE AESTHETICS OF THE DOCUMENTARY

The resumption of the documentary genre characterizes the visual writing of many artists from the late 90s to today. Geopolitical and social issues related to the effects of globalization turn video practices towards a documentary aesthetic, exploring the frontiers of representation, between documentary film and video art, reality and fiction, direct testimony and the creation of fictitious archives.

YANG FUDONG
Backyard – Hey! the Sun is Rising (hou fang – hei, tian liang le), 2001, 13’

WALID RAAD
I only wish that I could weep, 2002, 7’36’’

FIKRET ATAY
Bang Bang, 2003, 2’17’’

YAËL BARTANA
Kings of the Hill, 2003, 7’30’’

ENRIQUE RAMIREZ
Cruzar un Muro, 2012, 5’42”

HAYOUN KWON
489 Years, 2016, 11’18’’

LOLA GONZÀLEZ
Veridis Quo, 2016, 15’

EVANGELIA KRANIOTI
L’extase doit être oubliée, 2016, 32’

MATHILDE ROSIER
Le massacre du printemps, 2020, 18’20”

 

 

PART II – THE DECONSTRUCTION OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE

The methodical deconstruction of the cinematographic language codes defines the practice of this second group of artists, who developed experimental research through the mise en abyme of the narrative structures belonging to the film industry and the recontextualization of iconic elements belonging to cinematographic culture and the collective imagination, such as appropriation, détournement, remake.

DOMINIQUE GONZALEZ-FOERSTER
Riyo, 1999, 10’

JOÃO ONOFRE
Casting, 2000, 12’59”

JOHN MENICK
The secret life of things, 2006, 6’

MAÏDER FORTUNÉ
The secret life of things, 2006, 6’

ELODIE PONG
Endless Ends, 2009, 6’48’’

MIKA ROTTENBERG
Sneeze, 2012, 3’

ZHENCHEN LIU
L’Adieu, 2012, 18’

collectif_fact, ANNELORE SCHNEIDER & CLAUDE PIGUET
The Fixer, 2013, 8’24’’

JONAS LUND
The Game, 2014,17’48’’