XAVIER CHRISTIAENS - AU-DELÀ DES ICEBERGS

Following Le Goût du Koumiz (The Taste of Koumiz, 2003) and La Chamelle Blanche (The White Camel, 2006), Au-delà des Icebergs (Beyond Icebergland, 2014) is the last film by the Belgian director Xavier Christiaens (1963). After working as an actor, playwright and assistant (to film-makers such as Bruno Dumont), Christiaens went on to creating his own films on video. He is a persistent inventor of artistic forms and his work is located on the border of genres and practices. He conceives his films with uncompromising independence that is rigorous and very demanding towards the medium, which places him in a line along with avant-garde filmmakers. An artist without boundaries, he now presents a new free ride into imaginary territories. Au-delà des Icebergs has a poem by Henry Michaux as point of departure and intends to immerse us into a poetic and at the same time metaphysical elsewhere. The voyage starts from the very first seconds of the film, under the spell of an enchanting and irresistible soundtrack, taking us on a gradual discovery of a parallel world wreathed by a dim-coloured aureole, mysterious dark spots and nuclear dazzles. The spectator will, no doubt, find it difficult to assess the degree of reality of the locations, objects and events he will observe on screen. The historical context, however, is exact (the Cold War, conquest of space), the protagonists are identifiable (a woman, a man and a child) and what is at stake is clearly shown: these three protagonists seem to have been assigned to reside in a couple of rooms in a tower in the midst of a huge city. And yet, as the aural and visual layers tangle up, they plunge the spectator into some sort of waking dream, a stupor which makes him rapidly slacken the rational reins. In other words, it is an invitation to lose your way, to be distracted, or maybe even be drowned.

Au-delà des Icebergs. 2014, video, 54', colour and b&w, sound.

Daily screened every hour from 11am to 6pm.