AUTOPORTRAIT

of LAVENTURE Christophe

FRANCE, 2014, 00:03:00

Production : LAVENTURE Christophe
Genre : Video art
Keyword : Humour, Self-portrait

Summary :

If the trace of Roman Opalka and his gesture on the photographic self-portrait that embodies the passing of time is never far away, the clinical portrait, almost medical, that we discover on this video, follows a written work related to the centenary of the First World War.

When writing literary novellas on the theme of the conflict from 1914 to 1918, inspired by the reading of works by Blaise Cendras, Joë Bousquet, William March, Frederic Manning ... the author watched short films with the subject of psychological trauma further to the fighting.
 
The men, filmed through a fixed camera, and who are affected by the "shell shock" syndrome, are the most often unable to remain still facing the camera. One see the most often in the background, a man representing the medical profession wearing an apron that makes more think at a butcher than at a doctor. One can wonder about the feelings of the wounded soldier faced with this staging orchestrated under the eye almost mocking of the caregivers.
  
The choice of black and white and a minimalist background evoke the feeling of loneliness and abandonment that could experience the traumatized man in these moments of complete nudity.

In order not to fall into an excess of "autolatry" in the text written and read by the author, the latter had to tame his face reflected by the screen, but above all to grow away from it to expose a detailed and critical look of his appearance.

This "anthropometric" description is punctuated by injunctions that do not find any echo. The last part of the text, in the form of a general impression, brings us back to the first notion of time passing and our "inability to delay the course of things". The conclusion is without appeal.

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