For this second screening in the series The Artist Presents, the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection will feature two films by Alain Cavalier that look at the work of Christian Boltanski. The screening ends with a third film, L'Appartement de la rue de Vaugirard (1975) [“The Apartment on rue Vaugirard”] by Christian Boltanski.
To introduce the event, Alain Cavalier tells the following story:
“When Christian Boltanski was 20 years old, he sent me letter out of
the blue, just like that. He didn’t know me at all; that’s what he was doing at the time.
He was living with his parents on rue de Grenelle in Paris. He showed me his paintings. We had lunch at Les Ministères on rue du Bac.
A short while later, a new letter gave me an appointment at another place at a specific time... I went. The apartment door was ajar, the rooms, empty. A woman was leaning on the balcony, motionless. It was such a perfect imitation that you had to touch it to believe it. We chatted for many years, especially in bars. He showed me his films, which helped me shake up mine.
In 1998, at Paris’ Museum of Modern Art, I accompanied him through the labyrinth of his exhibition, filming him in one long take.
I did the same thing in 2018 at the Beaubourg. This time we were alone, just the two of us, no visitors”.
Alain Cavalier
Alain Cavalier was born in Vendôme in 1931. His films include La Chamade (1968), Thérèse (1986), 24 portraits (1990), La Rencontre (1996), Pater (2011), Le Paradis (2015) and Être vivant et le savoir (2019).
Les trois films qui seront présentés sont
Alain Cavalier, Au musée d’art moderne (1998), 30 minutes.
Alain Cavalier, À Beaubourg (2018), 1 hour.
Christian Boltanski, L’Appartement de la rue Vaugirard (1975), 4 minutes.
Curated by Caroline Bourgeois.
