CINEMA CYCLE: BABETTE MANGOLTE
Babette Mangolte, by means of her photographs and films, creatively documented the artistic scene of New York in the 1970s, creating some of the most emblematic images of North-American postmodern dance, by portraying the work of choreographers such as Yvonne Rainer or Trisha Brown and the performances and stage plays of artists such as Joan Jonas, Robert Morris, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, amongst others.
As a filmmaker, Mangolte has produced an original body of work, based on some main axes: reflection on the representation of movement and its passages and on questions linked to documentation, recording and reconstitution of dance and performance events; the relations between cinema and photography and the interest in using a subjective camera and regimes and hierarchies of gender and power in visual representation; and finally her films on landscapes, evident in her essays on the US West Coast and life in the urban suburbs.
Her unmistakable work as director of photography contributed to the singularity of the films in which she has collaborated, in particular in the films by Chantal Akerman (e.g. Jeanne Dielman…, 1975 and News from Home, 1977), two films by Yvonne Rainer (Lives of Performers, 1972 and A Film About a Woman Who, 1974) together with her collaborations with Marcel Hanoun, Michael Snow, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Sally Potter, amongst others.
More recently Mangolte has focused upon installation works, in which she reflects upon the different aspects of her work, on the basis of her working method and her personal archive of images and films. The film series dedicated to Mangolte presents various aspects of her work and includes a workshop with the artist.
1st SESSION - MOVEMENT AS PASSAGE: DANCE FILMS
13 MAY 2011 (Fri), 21:30
Slide Show, 2010, 15’, video
Water Motor, 1978, 7’, 35mm (choreography and acting, Trisha Brown)
Calico Mingling, 1973, 20’, 16mm (video) (choreography, Lucinda Childs) Yvonne Rainer AG Indexical with a little help from H.M., 2007, 44’, video
Films by Babette Mangolte
This session reflects Babette Mangolte's approach to dance films and the question of how to represent movement, together with the limits of documentation. Slide Show is a projection of a series of photographs selected from Mangolte's personal archive that seeks to highlight the vocabulary used by the generation of artists associated to the Judson Dance Theater. The next two films are notable examples of the director's work - the classic Water Motor, based on the 1978 solo performance of the same name by Trisha Brown, and Calico Mingling a film adaptation of the stage play by the Lucinda Childs group. The final film offers a reflection on the postmodern choices made by the choreographer Yvonne Rainer and her reinterpretation of George Balanchine's choreography Agon, performed by three modern dancers in interaction with a classic ballerina.
To purchase your ticket to this session, please click here.
WORKSHOP - IMPROVISATION AND THE CAMERA
14 May 2011 (Sat)
2nd SESSION - THE CAMERA: I
15 MAY 2011 (Sun), 21:30
Glass Puzzle, by Joan Jonas, 1968, 17’, video
The Camera: Je or La Camera: I, by Babette Mangolte, 1977, 88’, 16mm
Session followed by a conversation between Babette Mangolte and Luciana Fina (director and visual artist)
Mangolte describes The Camera: Je or La Caméra: I, as an exploration of directing a film from the point of view of a photographer/cineaste: "The film is literally the camera." This is a portrait of Mangolte's artistic production and also a film about the relationship between body and its photographic and filmic staging, and about her own life between two languages and cultures. Unusually for a commercial and structuralist film, The Camera: Je or La Caméra: I, according to Mangolte, attempts “to express something that is under-represented in mainstream culture or experimental work [...], such as how to direct a film about photography from the perspective of the photographer.”
The session opens with a classic film from Joan Jonas' oeuvre of this period, filmed on video by Mangolte and performed by Jonas and Lois Lane, in a complex and enigmatic work that explores feminine gestures, poses, the body and narcissism. By reflecting on each other’s behaviour through synchronised movements, Jonas and Lane provide references to feminine gestures and the poses of popular and traditional culture.
To purchase your ticket to this session, please click here.
3rd SESSION - TO PRESENT, TO REBUILD
17 MAY 2011 (Tue), 21:30
Four Pieces by Morris, by Babette Mangolte, 1994, 94’, 16mm
The film is a reconstitution of a classic performance produced in the early 1960s by the sculptor Robert Morris. For the director, the key issue resides in how to create a film, which many years later, will be able to transmit a sense of the aesthetic of another generation, without transforming or distorting it. The film includes the performances, Site, Arizona, 21:3 and Waterman Switch.
To purchase your ticket to this session, please click here.
4th SESSION - SELF PORTRAITS, OUT OF THE CENTRE
18 MAI 2011 (Wed), 21h30
La Chambre, by Chantal Akerman, 1972, 11’, 16mm
News from Home, by Chantal Akerman, 1977, 95’, 16mm
To purchase your ticket to this session, please click here.
For further information on Babette Mangolte's work, please consult: www.babettemangolte.com.
Ticket price for the Cycle: 3 euros per session.
This programme may be subject to alterations.
