Au moment où le quotidien s’hyperbole dans la réalité augmentée, où le Botox fait son cinéma en relief, où l’on s’invente réalités virtuelles sur Facebook, la grande loi de l’alternance voit apparaître un phénomène de résistance.. Les prothèses explosent et les masques tombent. C’est le grand retour de la vérité, de l’honnêteté, du fragile et de la simplicité. Il y avait le slow-food, voici maintenant la slow-tech. Le papier vient faire bugger la 3D, le déguisement fait la nique au character design. On revendique l’idiotie et la futilité, le pas grand’ chose et le presque rien. Les effets spéciaux ressemblent à des bluffs de prestidigitateurs et les installations à des machineries imparfaites – quand elles ne convoquent pas directement la nature. On assiste à une envolée de fluides, de bois et d’objets dérisoires. La performance remplace le blue screen, le pâte à modeler fait la nique à la palette graphique et Géo-Trouvetout détrône l’animateur 3D. L’époque ne veut plus d’interface, c’est le come-back de l’action directe. Florilège.

UK
When the daily exaggerates itself in augmented reality, when Botox makes 3D movies, when we invent virtual reality for ourserlves on facebook, the great law of alternance let happen a phenomenon of resistance. The protheses explode and the masks fall down. This is the comeback of the truth, the honesty, the fragile and the simplicity. There was slow-food, there is slow-tech now. Paper makes crash 3D, Disguise mocks character design. We claim the idiocy and the futility, the «not much» and the «barely nothing». Special FX seems like magician’s bluff and installations like imperfect machinery – when they don’t call directly nature. We assist to a surge of fluids, wood and trivial objects. Performance replaces blue screen, plasticine scoffs at graphics tablet, Gyro Gearloose dethrone the 3D animator. Days don’t want anymore interfaces, this is the return of direct action. Anthology.

Au moment où le quotidien s’hyperbole dans la réalité augmentée, où le Botox fait son cinéma en relief, où l’on s’invente réalités virtuelles sur Facebook, la grande loi de l’alternance voit apparaître un phénomène de résistance.. Les prothèses explosent et les masques tombent. C’est le grand retour de la vérité, de l’honnêteté, du fragile et de la simplicité. Il y avait le slow-food, voici maintenant la slow-tech. Le papier vient faire bugger la 3D, le déguisement fait la nique au character design. On revendique l’idiotie et la futilité, le pas grand’ chose et le presque rien. Les effets spéciaux ressemblent à des bluffs de prestidigitateurs et les installations à des machineries imparfaites – quand elles ne convoquent pas directement la nature. On assiste à une envolée de fluides, de bois et d’objets dérisoires. La performance remplace le blue screen, le pâte à modeler fait la nique à la palette graphique et Géo-Trouvetout détrône l’animateur 3D. L’époque ne veut plus d’interface, c’est le come-back de l’action directe. Florilège.

UK
When the daily exaggerates itself in augmented reality, when Botox makes 3D movies, when we invent virtual reality for ourserlves on facebook, the great law of alternance let happen a phenomenon of resistance. The protheses explode and the masks fall down. This is the comeback of the truth, the honesty, the fragile and the simplicity. There was slow-food, there is slow-tech now. Paper makes crash 3D, Disguise mocks character design. We claim the idiocy and the futility, the «not much» and the «barely nothing». Special FX seems like magician’s bluff and installations like imperfect machinery – when they don’t call directly nature. We assist to a surge of fluids, wood and trivial objects. Performance replaces blue screen, plasticine scoffs at graphics tablet, Gyro Gearloose dethrone the 3D animator. Days don’t want anymore interfaces, this is the return of direct action. Anthology.

La Gaîté Lyrique is a cutting-edge art project dedicated to artistic experimentations in the digital age.In 2010, the City of Paris, at the instigation of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, chose it as a flagship venue for digital culture. The new building will open to the public in March 2011. Architect Manuelle Gautrand has given the building a future-friendly slant. Retaining its original façade and entrance and fitted with cutting-edge equipment, the venue is a modular technological tool.

Photos : Vincent Fillon and Matt Pyke

Matt Pyke and Jerôme Delormas (director of La Gaîté Lyrique), during our visit in november 2011

Charlotte Léouzon, during the visit in november 2011

Simon Pyke and Matt Pyke, during the visit in may 2010

]]> http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/matt-myke-and-friends/feed/ 0 http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/matt-pyke-friends-3/ http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/matt-pyke-friends-3/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:10:38 +0000 admin http://va-voom.evada.fr/?p=222 Major Exhibition @ La Gaîté Lyrique for April-May 2011, 7 rooms of Digital Arts
Commissioned by Jerome Delormas, Director and Artistic Director @ La Gaîté Lyrique
Guest curator Charlotte Léouzon

La Gaîté Lyrique is a cutting-edge art project dedicated to artistic experimentations in the digital age.In 2010, the City of Paris, at the instigation of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, chose it as a flagship venue for digital culture. The new building will open to the public in March 2011. Architect Manuelle Gautrand has given the building a future-friendly slant. Retaining its original façade and entrance and fitted with cutting-edge equipment, the venue is a modular technological tool.

Photos : Vincent Fillon and Matt Pyke

Matt Pyke and Jerôme Delormas (director of La Gaîté Lyrique), during our visit in november 2011

Charlotte Léouzon, during the visit in november 2011

Simon Pyke and Matt Pyke, during the visit in may 2010

]]> http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/matt-pyke-friends-3/feed/ 0 http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/manipulators/ http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/manipulators/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:54:26 +0000 admin http://va-voom.evada.fr/?p=80 MAYBE THE SKY IS REALLY GREEN, 
AND WE’RE JUST COLORBLIND
A YouTube-o-theque curated by Johan Grimonprez and Charlotte Léouzon (2006…)

MANIPULATORS, maybe the sky is relly green and we’re just colorblind, is a TV genre in which the programme is improvised by the curators.  With Podcasts, online TV, mobile phones, video Ipods, blogs and YouTube, the digital age allows an infinite number of images and sounds to travel the world in no time. It is the era of home made productions, which expresses the chaotic nature of the human condition today as well as the cynicism of power. This video compilation in the form of a YouTube-o-Theque, which can be understood both as the joyful affirmation of a superb global disengagement and the catalyst of effervescent criticism, is best described as a platform for temporary disobedience.

At the invitation of the Musée de la Chasse as part of its cultural animation program, Charlotte Léouzon devised two video programmes around the theme of Man and Nature. Through a mixture of artists’ videos, clips, shorts, adverts, extracts from feature films, and amateur films found on the internet, these two programmes quirkily ask several central questions; what separates Man from Animal and what links them? How do we behave in relation to animals and in relation to the Animal in us? How does Man view animals and himself ?

Pure behavioural observation or anthropomorphism, human animal or loss of instinct, animal symbol or divorce from nature, consumation or veneration, the juxtaposition of artists’ films to big public films brings to light as much the extraordinary palette of representations of the animal world as the great variety of sentiments with which Man believes it is living.

At the invitation of the Musée de la Chasse as part of its cultural animation program, Charlotte Léouzon devised two video programmes around the theme of Man and Nature. Through a mixture of artists’ videos, clips, shorts, adverts, extracts from feature films, and amateur films found on the internet, these two programs quirkily ask several central questions; what separates Man from Animal and what links them? How do we behave in relation to animals and in relation to the Animal in us? How does Man view animals and himself ?

Pure behavioural observation or anthropomorphism, human animal or loss of instinct, animal symbol or divorce from nature, consumation or veneration, the juxtaposition of artists’ films to big public films brings to light as much the extraordinary palette of representations of the animal world as the great variety of sentiments with which Man believes it is living.

J’ai oublié mon parapluie allows us to better understand the Belgian artist’s metaphorical vocabulary and his narrative paths. In effect, this furtive installation should be considered a thought in progress. It consists of a mise en abime of original drawings laid out on the pages of the artist’s own book Looking for Alfred.

Using video, audition photographs, literary quotations and articles based on fact, J’ai oublié mon parapluie mixes both original and copy, truth and fake. The work can be seen as a never-ending rebus, a project faced with its own commentary, like the infinite reflections of two mirrors showing the duplicate of a duplicate of a duplicate…

Beyond the Walls, a video selection commissioned by Any communication and curated by Charlotte Léouzon. Bumpit, by the french artist Bertrand Planes, is a serie of video mapping installations – a video projection on white objects. This installation was especially conceived for the third night of the Levi’s vintage store opening, in december 2008.

Beyond the Walls, a video selection commissioned by Any communication for the opening of the Levi’s vintage store in Paris. Three nights of video projections and installations with the artists Bertrand Planes, Karolina Sobecka and Matthew Suib, curated by Charlotte Léouzon in 2008.

Au moment de l’explosion de la réalité virtuelle et du cinéma en relief. Au moment où l’on pense que le mensonge fait foi, où l’on s’accommode des faux semblants, des faux seins et des fausses victoires à coup de faux jeton. Au moment où le quotidien s’est viralisé dans Second Life et où la vraie vie des vrais gens glisse dans la Ferme aux célébrités, la grande loi de l’alternance voit apparaître un phénomène de résistance. C’est en effet le grand retour de la vérité et de la simplicité.

Après le slow food, voici maintenant la slow tech : la machinerie vient faire bugger la 3D, le déguisement fait la nique au character design. On revendique l’idiotie et la futilité, le pas grand’ chose et le presque rien. On assiste à une envolée de matières, de jets et de jus, de ballons et de danse. La performance remplace le blue screen, Géo-trouvetout détrône l’animateur 3D et le chef déco revient sur le devant de la scène. L’époque ne veut plus d’interface, c’est le come-back de l’action directe.  Florilège.

]]> http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/low-tech-vs-high-tech/feed/ 0 http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/passion-paris/ http://www.va-voom.tv/2010/11/passion-paris/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:40:24 +0000 admin http://va-voom.evada.fr/?p=145 Launched in 2004 by Passion Pictures, Passion Paris represents on the french market, a best of from Passion Pictures’ directors, while beeing an international platform for french talents. Since 2008, Charlotte Léouzon has scouted for Passion Paris directors like Yves Geleyn, Karni and Saul, Koichiro Tsujikawa, Cinco..

Ben and Julia

Patrick Jean

Yves Geleyn

Cinco

Karni & Saul

Koichiro Tsujikawa

Thomas Hicks

Dimitri Strankovicz

Anthony Scott Burns

Jamie Webster

Shy the Sun

Peppermelon

Encyclopedia Pictura

No Mint

Thomas Garber

Nez

Ben Briand

Leo and Suzie

Mario Zozin

Tim Brown

Alex and Liane

Nico and Martin

Gustav Johansson

Patrick Jean

Koichiro Tsujikawa

Cinco

SHY THE SUN

Yves Geleyn

CONNECTIONS is an eclectic journey from Brazil to California stopping through Europe 
and Asia : a world of emotions. A tear joker Irish short film, a sensational sexy film from London, a narcissist Dutch ufo, a sexy Brazilian experimentation, a baroque hallucinated opera from Australia, a humoristic Taiwanese sketch, a San Francisco wild shamanic experience, an aquatic beat from Tokyo…

Painter, illustrator, Guy Peellaert got himself noticed in 1966 with ’Les aventures de Jodelle’a comic strip character based on ‘60s icon, Sylvie Vartan.’Pravda la surviveuse’ followed, based on singer Françoise Hardy. This Belgian image maker, marked by cinema and music, author of posters for the films of Bresson, Scorcese and Coppola, record sleeves for the Rolling Stone (It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll) and David Bowie (Diamond Dogs) is one of the artistic witnesses of the 70′s and 80′s. Inescapable pop art player, Guy Peellaert wanted to direct but his projects failed. Rather than filming his dreams, he paints them.

In 1973, he met the critic Nik Cohn. The pair built ‘Rock Dreams’ a cutting edge collection: 125 images that make up a crazy view of a crazy period. All the icons, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Frankie Avalon and Lou Reed figure in this collection, this secret diary, begun 3 years earlier.

Portrait photos of stars, tableaux, photomontages (he doesn’t hesitate to resurrect and gather the departed around a dinner table) his works are all homages.

Sanctification or wild vision, the title is a mirror to the spirit of rock, with its orgies, its transvestite heroes. Photographic precision, decadence and a resounding success (more than 1 million copies sold). More than any one of his works, it is the setting of the scene at the end of an epoque.

The painter nourished by cinema, images, exploits reverse angle, the play of light, and films, this unreasoning time. On the occasion of the re-issue of ‘Rock D’ by Taschen, Guy Peellaert invested in the Galery Cueto.

In 2005, the brand new gallery La B.A.N.K opened its space of 200m2 with the group-show, Dreams are my reality, composed by 9 french and international artists.  At this occasion, Charlotte Leouzon was invited to curate a film projection around an emerging film director. She selected the austrian filmaker Virgil Widrich and his piece, Fast Film.

A woman is abducted and a man comes to her rescue, but during their escape they find themselves in the enemy’s secret headquarters. This classic plot conceals an hommage to action movies. In 14 minutes, Fast Film (a play on words, English fast and German fast, meaning “almost”) provides a tour de force through film history, from its silent beginnings to present-day Hollywood. The filmmakers printed out some 65,000 individual images from 300 films, folded them into paper objects, arranged them in complex tableaux, and then brought them to life with an animation camera in a two-year production process.

Drawer, painter and author of highly charged animation films, Thomas Hicks distills, through a singular and retro style, an infinite spectrum of fantasies and enigmas.The line is black, sensual and sombre. The material is thick, the canvas perforated, taped, the masked faces are sacrificed, the umbrellas are knives, the characters float in a shattered world. The canvasses, with voiceless and cavernous evocations, contrast with his lighter drawings, which serve as a basis for his animation films.

The neurotical animation by Thomas Hicks is an assemblage of shots, jittery and busy, go by in a mad hurry, with ghostly characters in the middle of worrying organic machines. Self-evidently akin to automatic writing, which denies all chance of grasping the narrative thread. Hicks’ not looking for coherence in his scripts, but to distil a worrying foreign flavour …kind of British, a bit crazy.

Commissioned by Eric Dalbin, Dalbin Events, 2007

SUPER a réuni des explorateurs poétiques, mélodiques et indépendants de la scène française actuelle. Le public a découvert un concert de Sébastien Tellier, mis en scène par le plasticien Xavier Veilhan sur la grande scène de la maison des arts de Créteil. Deux autres scénographies originales ont réunit les collaborations de l’impertinent groupe Turzi avec les graphistes Bowling club, et du sensualiste groupe Hypnolove associé aux images de Phormazero. Enfin les infatigables dénicheurs de perles Dirty sound system ont joué leur partition musicale sur une programmation vidéo imaginée et projetée en live par Charlotte Léouzon.

Charlotte Léouzon with Philippe Martin, her Mac angel, master the Arkaos audio visual system