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Born in 1953 in Morschwiller-le-Bas in France.
Lives and works in Paris.
Website : http://sylvieblocher.com
Gallery : www.rogerpailhas.com
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In the framework of BIP2012, we present three productions of the video artist Sylvie Blocher. Two of them are part of her cycle entitled Living Pictures (For Ever, 2000, and Les Témoins (The Witnesses), 2010), and the third one (To Andy) belongs to her Urban Stories.
The artist explains: "Urban Stories began in 2003. They are like video travelogues in hybrid form, combining raw footage, urban spaces I came across, and artistic improvisations with people I met." In To Andy, she simply asked two female friends to kiss on camera. This video refers to The Kiss, Andy Warhol's "anti-film." The minimalism of the process (fixed sequence plan, direct sound) contrasts sharply with the physicality of what takes place. At the end, the film switches from color to black and white, giving the scene a more referential and cinematic dimension.
Concerning the series of Living Pictures begun in 1992, Sylvie Blocher adds: "when I decided to work with a" hazardous material," I raised the question of aesthetic responsibility. I decided to share my influence as an artist with strangers encountered through ads all around the world. I placed the camera head-on and created a restricted set-up. It was their resistance to this set-up and their communication with the "other," through my questions, which sometimes opened them up. These people suddenly transformed into carriers of voices. They were no longer acting, they existed. It is always a very concise moment, just like a whisper, an intense concentration of an unknown, internal moment. I named this the practice of abandonment. The fact that one can escape the role assigned to oneself by the media, by one's place in society, and by one's need for legitimization by authority. The Living Pictures are a kind of gymnastics of the otherness."
In terms of process, the Living Pictures follow a relatively standard modus operandi. « Les Living Pictures de Sylvie Blocher... les participants offrent des réponses tour à tour défiantes et révélatrices » (extrait de l'article de Rachel Kent, « Ala recherche du sujet : les Living Pictures de Sylvie Blocher », in Sylvie Blocher : What is missing ?, catalogue de l'exposition présentée au Musée d'Art contemporain de Sydney du 17 février au 26 avril 2010, p. 11).
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