rouge ciel + michel thévoz

What sort of nerd carries along a (library) copy of Michel Thévoz' "Art Brut, psychose, et médiumnité" to a movie screening about art brut? You know, just in case the man himself made an appearance...not to ask for an autograph, clearly, just in case I needed to quote him.. to him... you know ? "Michel, the way you cite Sartre's notion of serial alterity and the idea of recurrence in reference to Dubuffet's motives... on page 28.. that was really brilliant. I also notice Sara Koffman in your references, I'm surprised Nietzsche doesn't rear his ugly little head more often. Or are you more interested in what she's got to say about Deleuze?..." you know.. just in case.

Unfortunately, M. Thévoz was either not present or for all my efforts, I couldn't find him. And, alas, neither was Mme. Peiry, the new-er director of the Art Brut Museum in Lausanne.

The film itself was directed and produced by M. Bruno Descharme, director and founder of the Collection abcd-artbrut, with the assistance of scores of people in production, and of course the gallery director, Barbara Safrova. A preview of the film is online, HERE, and pretty much sums up everything that was aesthetically masterful and abysmal about it. A friend of mine from Stanford, who's just graduated from the documentary film program came along and offered the following criticism: in short it's the problem with all movies about art... or really about all documentaries about art, the directors aren't really interested in painting an accurate portrait of the subject. Instead they take the subject matter and bury it under their filmic aesthetic. It's more about making a beautiful film than telling a story. We agreed that we hadn't really learned anything from the movie and that it was really difficult to see the work of the artists represented. Clearly, this is problematic....as far as documentaries go. But beyond that, with the limited number of films on art brut out there, I suspect this'll be the one that circulates the widest in the coming years. And the one that tells us nothing about the work really at all. Nothing that one couldn't find out by doing a bit of reading on the subject, or visiting a gallery. The most offensive bits, which are toward the end of the online preview, are the animated narratives of Jean Dubuffet's life. It's cute. I wondered what Jean would think. He seems to have had a pretty good sense of humor, but most definitely was a grumpy old man when he passed. It seemed disrespectful and entirely unnecessary.

The film did have it's shining moments. The interviews with Michel Thèvoz and Randall Morris (of Cavin Morris Gallery in New York), and Barbara Safrova were really heart-felt testaments. What I mean to say is that it was clear that these individuals are actively engaged in reevaluating their cause, the "meaning of art brut," its significance, and how to explain these things. That sense of urgency and of delight in their testimonies... I mean, that's how you want to talk about art. That's how you want to talk about your passions. Every time they'd appear on screen, I'd get a bit giddy. I'm writing this blog, and reading, and meditating on this work because I feel that passionately about it. I hope you understand.

On the bus ride over to the gallery abcd-artbrut (clear across town from the movie house), Nick and I talked about life, film, food, monsters, and madness. You know, the usual. He's making a monster movie and is trying to figure out how to go about figuring out what we modern people are afraid of, collectively. Are we afraid of change in general, of failure (and in what form), of technology, of untimely death, ourselves? Emmanuel Dayan & Nicholas (same Nick) Berger made a documentary together recently, interviewing women with rare chemical allergies. Apparently there's an institution/research center for people, the canaries in the coal mine they call themselves, who have become allergic to contact with common place things, to the air, to tap water and so on. They're convinced that modern life is toxic, and that one day we'll all be allergic to everything.

At gallerie abcdartbrut, the food and wine were very good and in abundance. The show... I think deserves a second pass. It's online in bits here.

Please forgive the abbreviated account of last night's film. I think I'm still processing. In short, I wish it'd been less like the "documentary" on the life of Henry Darger, out recently, and more like "how to draw a bunny" on the life of Ray Johnson---brilliant .