Jour Blanc

Jour Blanc

Room 2

Julie Chaffort

Jour blanc

EXHIBTION /
OCTOBER 16 TO NOVEMBER 22, 2014

OPENING /
THURSDAY OCTOBER 16, 8PM 

ARTIST TALK /
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 3PM

CLARK presents the first solo exhibition by Bordeaux artist and filmmaker Julie Chaffort. Jour Blanc is the result of a residency created in partnership with the Zebra3/Buyselff organization in Bordeaux. This research period allowed the artist to reflect on the installation of her work within a gallery context, whereas previously, her work has been primarily shown in film festivals. At the heart of her practice is a continued interest in childhood and the memories that surface bit by bit, lose their accuracy, or disappear with time. For the artist, a “jour blanc” (a white day) – referencing a poem of the same name by Arseni Tarkovski – is a time when one is allowed to start over from scratch, to erase everything and return to a blank page.

Everything takes shape through the landscape. Within a natural décor, the artist stages her surrealist paintings. The 2014 fictional short, titled Pas un bruit, is a piece that oscillates between reality and fantasy. Presented on a monitor, the film allows the viewer to discover the artist’s previous work, which in this case, is richly nostalgic. At the centre of the installation, other images by Chaffort, filmed during her residency, echo the other works. One of these projections shows a landscape disappearing beneath a dark and dense fog. The effects of light on the landscape transform it, and the movement of the fog acts as a kind of breath. Another piece shows a turntable shot in different locations. The turntable emits the sound of howling wolves, adding humour to the incongruous scene, as if the music was being played for the landscape. Finally, the artist displays the wind in all of its power, blowing against the subjects who struggle mightily against this invisible force.

Finally, a sound installation will strongly engage viewers aurally, as well as visually. Chafford employs a drone whose repetitive but unpredictable noise produces a physical effect on the audience. The viewer’s endurance is tested, much like the subjects in her films, whose actions she directs for the camera. Here, the viewer becomes an actor within the installation. Chaffort constructs scenarios that become transformed during the shooting process, based on the actors’ poses or by unforeseen actions that occur. The artist asks: how long can we make a shot last? Here, she plays with the notion of expectation and action within works that encourage contemplation and dreaming.

Manon Tourigny / translation : Jo-Anne Balcaen

 

Since graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux in 2006, Julie Chaffort has devoted herself to her film practice. She has written, directed, produced, edited and distributed two feature-length films, Some Sunny Days and Wild is the Wind, before completing her diploma at the Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School in New York in 2010. Since then, she has worked with director Roy Anderson in Stockholm, and was a selected filmmaker at the Centre International d’art et du Paysage, on the island of Vassivière, where she directed her new film, Hot-Dog. While her practice is primarily based in cinema, it also incorporates the visual arts, including installation and performance. Her most recent work, BANG !, is a monumental installation composed of approximately thirty pianos piled on top of each other in a spectacular, almost burlesque scene.

I would like to thank the Parc de la forêt Ouareau - especially Mr Lapointe and André Paquette, the film team : Myriam Allard, Christophe Ballangé, Hugolin Chevrette, Claudette Lheureux and Agathe Herrmann, MFX Productions, Yann Pocreau, Olivier Villanove, Jean-Philippe Thibault, Sébastien Cliche and the Centre CLARK team. This exchange was made possible with the support of the Commission permanente de coopération Franco-Québécoise (CPCFQ).