Lucie SzechterSharing One’s Own Face

Color portrait of a blond man in white shirt. Overlay transparent images

Lucie Szechter
Sharing One’s Own Face

Research and curatorial residency

2018

Vidéographe

Free

As part of its Research and Curatorial Residency program, Vidéographe is pleased to welcome researcher and artist Lucie Szechter for a research project based on our collection.

Filming the Self
Lucie Szechter’s research project, Sharing One’s Own Face, considers the issues raised by the face in the practice of filming the self. She uses the term ‘filming the self’ in a broad sense as self-filming occurs as soon as the film-maker is present on screen in his or her own film. During this residency, she will specifically try to answer the question ‘what is it to film oneself as someone else?’ Using a body of videographic works selected from Vidéographe’s collection.

Filming the self and the emergence of a new social space
During this research and curatorial residency, she will consider whether the link between articulation on one hand and representation on the other can allow for a new relationship to emerge between the film-maker and the viewer, as well as between the film-maker and whoever else is being filmed, if anyone else is. We could also address the subject of the ‘exhibition’[1] of the film-maker on screen, from the author’s vulnerability to his or her possible empowerment.

Filming the self and its uses in a contemporary context
During an organized study day at the end of the residency, she will attempt to contextualise the practice of filming the self in cinema and video art with other researchers. Did filming the self in art predict current practices on social media networks? What differentiates the practice today?

The issue of representation of the author’s face in a political context in which facial recognition tends to be systematized could also consider ; a context in which ‘racial profiling’ persists, for example. What political capital, if any, might we observe in the practice of filming the self? Could film and video-makers use self-filming to subvert the procedures of control and identification to which we are subjected? We might, for example, consider the implications of using masks or make-up when filming the self.

The impact that filming the self has on the ‘documentary pact’ (guaranteeing the viewer that the film depicts the real world) and the ‘autobiographic pact’ (confirmation in the text that the identities of the author, narrator, and protagonist coincide) will also be looked at.

Some works attempt to breech these implicit pacts (this is the case in numerous ‘individual mythologies’ in the visual arts, for example), while others attempt to affirm them (in certain film magazines and cinematographic self-portraits for example). We will explore the different tools used to reach these aims.

[1] The act of showing, of exposing to the public eye

Biography
Born in Nantes, France in 1987, Lucie Szechter obtained a Master’s Degree in Cinema Studies at the Université de Montréal before enrolling in the research/practice-based doctoral program ‘Art and Sciences’ at the École de Recherche Graphique (Brussels) and the Université de Liège with the national grant FRESH awarded by the FNRS. In 2014, Szechter shot her first short fiction film Plage(s), produced by the Groupe de Recherches et d’Essais Cinématographiques (G.R.E.C). Plage(s) has been selected for numerous festivals, including Côté Court (Pantin) and the Festival International de Films de Femmes (Créteil), and has received the Courts d’ici 2014 prize in Nice from Un festival c’est trop court. The following year, Szechter was invited by LE BAL contemporary art centre in Paris to realise a film project with children as part of their program, La Fabrique du regard. In 2016, she finished her second film, 27 ans, a documentary work combining sound testimonies and found footage. At the end of 2016, she was invited by G.R.E.C., France 2 and the Agence du court métrage to make a one-minute film for a collection paying tribute to Lumière operatives. Szechter is currently shooting her new film, L’Oreille décollée, produced by Aurora films with the support of the Pays de la Loire region and CNC. She also writes about film for Canadian and French magazines. cargocollective.com/lucieszechter

@Charlotte Clermont, Plants Are Like People, 2018_soutien_technique_cover_mars2022

Technical Support Program

Call for submissions

Deadline : March 1st, 2022

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Deadline : March 1st, 2021

* New: 4 calls for submissions per year

Program description

The Technical Support Program is intended to support artists interested in experimentation and in pushing the boundaries of the moving image in all its forms.
This support can be used in the production phase of the project or in the post-production phase.

A total of 4 calls for submissions per year will be made, for which the following are the deadlines;

March 1st (for projects that will start between April and June)
June 1st (for projects that will start between July and September)
September 1st (for projects that will start between October and December)
December 1st (for projects that will start between January and March)

Please note that 2 projects per call for submissions will be selected.

Artists selected under this program have free access to:

Our editing suites, sound booth and digitizing equipment for a maximum of two weeks. These two weeks can be contiguous or spread over 3 months.
Free access to available equipment belonging to Vidéographe.
Two meetings with Vidéographe’s team to discuss the project and its circulation potential: one meeting at the start of the project in order to specify the needs and a second meeting at the end of the project.
The possibility of organizing a private screening at Vidéographe.

It is not necessary to be a member of Vidéographe to apply; however, should your proposal be accepted, we will ask that you become a member. Once you have signed the agreement, you will have three months to take advantage of the benefits that this program has to offer. Regular membership fees are $50 + tx per year and student membership fees are $25 + tx per year.

We are looking to support independent experimental or documentary works that stand apart for their currency and endeavour to renew the artistic language. We will accept proposals for single-channel video, installation, Web-based work, and all other forms of moving image. We consider all genres—video art, experimental work, fiction, documentary or essay form, animation, dance video, and videoclip. Please note that all works must be independent and non-commercial. Projects of a conventional nature, such as classic short narrative film or television documentary will not be considered.

Once your project is finished, you may submit it for active distribution by Vidéographe. Please note however that acceptance into the Technical Support Program does not guarantee that your work will be distributed.

Required

Candidates must possess full editorial and creative control of the project.
Projects must be independent and non-commercial.
Projects that have received support through this program may not be re-submitted.
Student projects are not admissible.
We encourage traditionally under-represented artists to submit a project. Vidéographe is driven by the conviction that multiple points of views are necessary to enrich society and the discipline we work in.

Selection process

Works will be chosen by a selection committee made up of Vidéographe staff and members.

Projects that are retained will be subject to a contractual agreement between the artist and Vidéographe. Schedules, revised budgets, and requirements regarding equipment, rooms, and technical support will be planned and clearly laid out, as will the terms and conditions relative to each party.

Application file:

Contact information and website if applicable
Project description (500 words)
Schedule; (Overall project timeline and detailed timeline for support for creation).
Technical needs; (Please consult our website for more details on our editing suites and equipment).
Resume.
Supporting documentation (current or past projects);
Maximum 10 minutes of video footage. Please send a link to your video(s). Do not forget to include the password if applicable; and/or maximum 15 images (max: 1024 px wide, 72 dpi); sketches, plans, and mock-ups may also be submitted in PDF format.

Submission of your file

Applications will be accepted by email only. An acknowledgment of receipt will be sent. Please write TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM in the subject heading of your email and send your file to info@videographe.org. Please send your file as a SINGLE PDF document (including links to videos). Files found in the text section of the email will not be taken into account.

Please allow three weeks for a response. Vidéographe chooses eight projects per year.

FREE PROGRAM ON VITHÉQUE – La Trilogie des Glaciers

VITHÈQUE

Free

With La trilogie des glaciers, Vidéographe is proud to present the work of artists Virginie Laganière and Jean-Maxime Dufresne for the first time on Vithèque. Fragile Monument, Albedo and Après les glaciers are part of a body of work recently acquired by Vidéographe, which we look forward to share with you.

► Click here to access the program [+]

This series of three short films examines the evolution of glacial zones in Switzerland, and calls attention to our complex relationships with the natural world. It encourages us to consider ecological futures where states of hybridity, vulnerability and the sublime are intertwined.

The central focus of this trilogy is the Rhône glacier in the Swiss Alps. With an altitude of 3,600 meters, this glacier has, since the end of the 19th century, become both an object of scientific study and a significant popular tourist destination. In an eloquent indication of its anticipated disappearance, part of the glacier’s ablation zone, which is subject to melting, has been covered in geotextile mosaics to protect it from solar radiation. While these reflective coverings can help to slow the acceleration of glacial retreat, this practice nevertheless remains contested by scientists. The draping of these blankets creates an enigmatic setting, evocative of shrouds, or temporary refuges, and represent a man-made attempt to control the landscape in a context of climate change. Fragile Monument, an immersive work of image and sound, explores the temporal scales of the glacier, the water, and the mineral environment, and their interconnectedness with human rhythms.

Albedo offers a visual foray into research on the Rhône glacier at ETH Zurich. Researchers use technical tools to produce reports as part of their surveillance of the glacier, whose fissures and signs of sinking are tangible. The images are accompanied by a scientific explanation of the albedo effect: the unit of measurement for a (snow covered) surface’s capacity to reflect the sun’s rays and protect the ice from melting. The feedback loops initiated by climate change upset the glaciers’ precarious equilibrium, as their skin is extremely sensitive. Observed, studied, and draped, the Rhône glacier is presented as a climate hyper-object, a ‘quasi-artifact whose sublime aura is now overshadowed by the vertiginous reality that it is disappearing’¹.

In the final chapter of the trilogy, In the Wake of Glaciers, scientific researcher and glaciologist Jean-Baptiste Bosson shares his expertise. Bosson campaigns for the protection of glaciers and glaciated margins from the perspective of the ecosystem, removed from an anthropocentric point of view. In this film, the gaze extends to different alpine zones in Switzerland that are exposed to glacial receding. Because of this phenomenon, untouched environments have begun to emerge from the ice, prompting a consideration for their protection as potential havens of biodiversity. Against a backdrop of macroscopic shots of air bubbles trapped in the ice, like live archives giving a sense of the glacier’s age, Bosson asserts that the glaciers are sensitive objects that allow us to better understand the history of the climate.

This trilogy was made under the La Becque Principal Residency Program (Switzerland) in 2021-22, with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. It is part of an evolving body of work entitled Radiant Mountain, which, through exhibitions, photographs and videos, explores various imaginings and interpretations of the mountain, encompassing landscape transformations, technological installations, and therapeutic qualities related to the legacy of modernity in the alpine environment.

‘Beyond its monolithic presence, the mountain is a complex hyperobject whose impact reverberates across multiple planes. Structured as a series of interlinked chapters, this project explores the myriad facets of our anthropic engagement with mountains. Nature, technology, architecture, history, hydrology, geomorphology, health, spirituality and wellness intertwine in a heterochrony that brings together human, glaciological and geological time frames.’²

– Includes extracts (1 and 2) of an essay by Gentiane Bélanger, curator of the exhibition La Montagne radieuse, Galerie d’art Foreman at Bishop’s University, 2022. Translations taken from the Exhibition Booklet.