LOOK AT ME – FACIAL EXPRESSION AND THE RELATION TO IMAGE AND IDENTITY

The face is the most individualized part of the body, the most perceptible aspect of our identity. The more a society attaches importance to individuality, the more the importance of the face increases. The history of the portrait starts from there. Today the arts tend to play more with the non-evidence of the portrait, the complex relationship between image and identity. Look at Me brings together a number of videos on the theme of the face by artists who explore and develop this idea in their work. Each one is a film or video in which the viewer is visually and verbally confronted by individuals filmed mostly in close up. These works are built around concepts of interiority and exteriority, the elusiveness of the face and the reciprocity between looking and being looked at. The face is at the same time an identifier and something entirely unreadable. Look at Me offers a sampling of filmic facial expressions, in which the photogenic and the idiosyncratic, the close up and the voice engage in surprising alliances.

Program:
La fille qui ne ferme jamais les yeux
Nicolas Dufranne, 2004, 3’30", colour, silent.
Look at me
Uri Tzaig, 2003, 9’40", b&w, silent, English and Hebrew spoken.
My Erotic Double
Steve Reinke, 1997, 1’36", colour, English spoken.
55 Barbes Bleues (hommes)
Thierry De Mey, 1999, 26’, colour, French spoken.
Colours
Hans Op De Beeck, 1999, 1’41", colour, silent.
The Bastardstown Blogger
Orla Barry, 2007, 17’, colour, English spoken.
Turn-on
Vito Acconci, 1974, 21’52”, colour, English spoken.
Not a matter of if but when: brief records …
Julia Meltzer & David Thorne, 2006, 32’, colour, Arabic spoken, English subtitles.
Porque te vas (portraits)
Valerie Mannaerts, 1996, 1’, b&w, silent.
Inventur / Invocation. I have watched ...
Ralo Mayer, 2008, 8’, colour, English spoken.

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This event is part of THEMATIC SERIES - SCREENINGS