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Light Exhibition

Installations

Mère Folle Project

Multiple format project, 2008-2012
Multi-lingual with subtitles

Following its launch in 2008, the Mère Folle Project has grown into a multiple-format project dealing principally with madness, psychoanalysis, inter-generational trauma and the treatment of the insane as the last form of discrimination.

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Films

Mère Folle (2010) was launched with specific audiences in mind.

A Long History of Madness (2011) is the international film of this project, released for the general public.

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Screenings & Events

Across Europe and America we are involved in conferences, film festivals and art museums, to discuss the theoretical and practical themes of our project.

Installations.


Spatialising the content of the film offers us the possibility to screen the work in museum and art gallery contexts, in order to create different experiences of the images. Anachronisms (2010), The Space In-Between (2011) and A Second Chance (2011) are three such examples. Anachronisms was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao alongside the exhibition The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Painting from the Städel Museum, while The Space In-Between and A Second Chance are multiple screen installations taking elements from the fiction film and expanding them.

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Book

This is an on-going long-term project, to present a number of articles, interviews, set photographs and behind the scenes making-of photographs.

Click on the image to the right to view more images.

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See more on the Mère Folle Project website.

Installations

UNA SEGUNDA OPPORTUNIDAD /

SISSI’S TREATMENT/A SECOND CHANCE
Single-screen video projection, 20:25:14, 2011
EXHIBITED AT
“Facing It: Imaging Madness,” Broadcast Gallery, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, October 16 – November 29, 2011“Landscapes of Madness,” curated by Mia Hannula, Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
“Towards the Other,” Museum of the city of Saint Petersburg, Peter & Paul Fortress, St Petersburg, Russia, October 10-29, 2011
“La última frontera / The Last Frontier,” Fundación José García Jiménez, Murcia, Spain, February 2 – March 30, 2011
The different titles of this piece stem from a staggered presentation history. It was first made for the exhibition La última frontera in Murcia, Spain. Then, in a late decision, it was included in the exhibition Towards the Other, in Saint Petersburg. I decided this to break open the category of “migratory” issues that was the thread of that show. In Turku, the first complete exhibition of the Mère Folle Project, the presence of other Sissi material made it necessary to rename the piece yet again.

double sissi.jpeg

THE SPACE IN-BETWEEN
Two-channel video projection with carpet and armchairs, 10:31:01, 2010
EXHIBITED AT
“Facing It: Imaging Madness,” Broadcast Gallery, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, October 16 – November 29, 2011“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
“Images Moving Across the Arts and Disciplines” conference, Laterna Film Academy, Pécs, Hungary, December 10 – 12, 2010
This two-screen installation is among the oldest - a version of it was already exhibited in Pécs, Hungary, in 2010. It is extremely immersive, and attracts people to sit for a long time at the edge of the rug that indicates the analytic space.

OFFICE HOURS
Three-channel video sculpture (05:27:22; 04:18:17; 06:09:18), 2011
EXHIBITED AT
“Facing It: Imaging Madness,” Broadcast Gallery, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, October 16 – November 29, 2011
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
The sculptural quality of this three-channel piece is immersive in a different way. While The Space In-Between invites visitors to sit for a long time, here the visitor, standing and obliged to choose on headphone at the time, is at the same time invited “inside” the space delineated by the three pedestals. While hearing on of the dialogues, the images of the other two lure from the corner of the eye. The two analytic spaces - the “grande salle” of the hospital allegedly in Paris (but in reality, in the art deco building of the art residency De Ateliers in Amsterdam - alternate with the hospital of Seili in Finland, the so-called “half-way house” where patients get ready to reintegrate society. This photo was made by a visitor, Gregory Hearns, to the exhibition “Facing It: Imaging Madness”.

MIDDLE AGES MEET TODAY
Single-channel video installation (07:38:09)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
This piece was especially made for the exhibition in Turku. The museum Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova consists of a medieval section, on the lower floor, among the accidentally discovered medieval ruins; and the modern part on the two upper floors. Our exhibition occupied the ground floor. This made it possible to make this single-channel piece as a transition. It was installed on a titled monitor, to attract visitors to the medieval section to come also to our exhibition. This is especially relevant as much of this work was shot in Turku, during the annual medieval festival. Hence, visitors could recognise places, buildings, and perhaps themselves.

LANDSCAPES
Single-channel video installation (05:31:17)
EXHIBITED AT
“Facing It: Imaging Madness,” Broadcast Gallery, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, October 16 – November 29, 2011
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
This single-channel piece is a patchwork of landscapes that morph from natural loveliness into historically scarred places of violence. It served as the title or emblem in Turku, where the title “Landscapes of Madness” asked for such a silent piece. It was also exhibited in Dublin, next to Sissi’s Treatment, where it put a spatial spin on the latter work. The treatment is confined to a single room, the analyst’s office. The landscapes open Sissi’s world up, obliquely and uncannily.

FOLLY RESURFACES
Single-channel video installation (11.32.22)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
The folly of older times haunts the present. In Basel, a carnival continuous with the late-medieval tradition of Sotties, the old musical tradition of drums with high-pitched flutes is still alive. In the Courtyard, Fools wreak havoc, disturbing the fragile peace with their charivari, noise produced by beating with wooden sticks on pots hanging from the Fools’ belts. The hospital nurse attempts to calm down the situation by turning this tradition on its head, beating also with sticks on pots but now harmoniously. This prefigures the metaphor of psychoanalysis and music. This work, projected on a wall-filling screen, was meant to invite visitors to begin constructing their own stories, in the labyrinthine galleries in Turku.

MADNESS COMES IN THREE HALVES
Single-channel video (03.29.07)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
A mysterious “madman” - is he “cured” or still “mad” or rather, an artist? - appears in the lives of two small children, played by August Voskuil (Pierre) and Lena Verhoeff (Pippa). They first mock him a bit, then are caught in his game and begin to imitate him (Pierre) or earnestly explaining his ideas (Pippa). The Man reads them a self-composed poem. The short piece consists of just that reading. This short, intimate piece is presented with headphones for personal participation in the game, the art, and the exploration of the fine line between madness and artistry.

ARISTE’S ANGER
Single-channel video projection (03:57:10)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
On a large floating screen in the middle of a dark room, the images show the recently deceased psychotic patient Ariste. The young man is angry. Everybody has let him down. He is especially resentful of his psychoanalyst, who had been doubtful when he told her his memories. She thought he was confused. Posthumously, he turns out to have been right. In a dream, the analyst overhears gossip exchanged inside an old WWII tank between Ariste, other patients, Fools, and a little girl. Now it is her turn to be confused. And the dead man keeps looking on, staring at the world’s folly…

MORE WILL FOLLOW ON THE PIECES BELOW:
ARISTE REMEMBERED
Single-Channel video (05:32:10)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
FOOLS AT WAR
Single-channel video, (4:26:05)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
PSYCHOANALYSIS ON TRIAL
Two-channel video projection (08:45:24)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
STRIKING THE RIGHT CHORD
Single channel video (04:13:07)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Ventus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
THE WAR GOES ON
Single channel video (12:54:00)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
MORGUE’S CELL
Installation with Single-channel video (01:48:21), furniture
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
SISSI OUTSIDE
Single-channel video (06:20:07)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
WATCHING THE NEWS
Single-channel video (07:02:12)
EXHIBITED AT
“Landscapes of Madness,” Aboa Vetus&Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 20-11-2011-29-1-2012
ANACHRONISMS
With Michelle Williams Gamaker, three-channel video installation, 2010
Commissioned by Städel Museum Frankfurt and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
EXHIBITED AT
“The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Painting from the Städel Museum.” Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 7 October 2010 – 23 January 2011

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