Dora García: "Film (Hôtel Wolfers)"
From 17 to 21 December, from 17.00 to 20.00
Fabra i Coats - Contemporary Art Centre and Art Factory of Barcelona
Film (Hôtel Wolfers)
Dora García
2007
35 mm film transferred to HD video, b/w,
11ʹ 31ʺ’
Original version with Spanish subtitles
Courtesy of ProjecteSD, Barcelona
Photographs courtesy of the artist and ProjecteSD, Barcelona
Shot in black and white, the film intertwines two narratives. The visual part of the work shows a path through the interior of the famous Maison Wolfers in Brussels, designed by Henry van de Velde. Dora García uses conventions of the subjective camera, which, like a furtive and distracted eye, at a slow and watchful pace, scans the interior of the mansion in decline. Parallel to the image, the audio of the piece develops, transpiring at the same slow pace. It is a description narrated by a male voice that has nothing to do with the images and describes the actions and shots of the only film made by Samuel Beckett, Film (1965), one of the first to use the subjective camera or point-of-view technique. Through this double narrative of audio and video, the artist places us as participating subjects in a scenario that moves between reality and fiction.
"I decided to use this text with an image corresponding to the subjective camera, portraying something full of melancholy, entropy, former glory, an image that could compete with the face of Buster Keaton in Film. I found this at Maison Wolfers", explains the artist. Film (Hôtel Wolfers) is one of eight video pieces, created for the H Box and commissioned by Hermès, and has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, MUSAC, MUDAM in Luxembourg and at the Yokohama Triennale.
Dora García (Valladolid, 1965) is a visual artist who reflects on the parameters and conventions that govern the presentation of art, on the question of time (real and fictitious) and on the limits between representation and reality. She plays the role of film director, explaining stories (or simply selecting them) and involving us in a game where the rules are very similar to reality, thus enabling us to question it.