MARIE VOIGNIER

Marie Voignier’s work is constantly seeking to explore the intertwinement of imaginary and factual elements in reality itself. For instance, she follows a European cryptologist in his quest for a mythical animal in the middle of Cameroon’s jungle (The Mokele-Mbembe Hypothesis); she mingles with journalists seeking to construct an image of the ‘monster of Amstetten’ (Hearing the shape of a drum); she explores the staged reality in a ‘tropical holiday resort’ next to an East German village (Hinterland) and North Korea’s self-presentation through the lens of a tourist (International Tourism). Her approach problematizes not only the very constitution of reality itself and its complicated mediations, but also the position of the observer, who is always already a part of the mise-en-scène. Marie Voignier's cinema finally takes a look at looking itself as if the microscope were to turn back and explore the eye that observes through it. Showing that there is no neutrality of observation, her films represent so many critical, sharp but nondirective visions of a state of the world, which remain open to interpretation.

Her films have been shown in various exhibition spaces [such as Centre Pompidou (Paris), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago)], film festivals (Berlinale, Viennale, IFFR Rotterdam, FID Marseille) and biennials [57th Venice Biennale (2017), Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012), 6th Berlin Biennial (2010)].