MY SUMMER 77 WITH GORDON MATTA-CLARK

This film document is an addendum to the original Office Baroque film that was realised by Cherica Convents in the seventies. The film consists of never unveiled reflections & images of Gordon while preparing one of his last building cuts ‘Office Baroque’. The footage was stored for over 35 years in “the Cherica archives” when she contacted AAP Media to help her realising this documentary.

In May of 1977, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) was invited by the director Flor Bex from the “International Cultural Centre (ICC)” in Antwerp/Belgium, and spent most of the summer of 1977 working on Office Baroque. 

My Summer 77 actually was made mainly using 16mm digitized image rest rushes originals of the Office Baroque shooting in 1977. A lot of this more subjective images around Gordon were not really used in the first original editing of the Office Baroque cutting. My Summer 77 focusses more on showing the artwork as such in a visual, structural way.

There existed also a lot of unexplored sound material from the shootings, and this gave Cherica the idea to let Gordon explain his vision in depth.

Cherica wanted to structure this new Summer 77 movie in 2012 only around Gordon’s own words. Gordon loved to comment his projects. Because of this initial sound approach, we stay during the entire documentary in touch with Gordon’s idea and his inner approach and reflexions. This new documentary movie is therefore an addendum to the first original Office Baroque movie. The Office Baroque story is told a second time, more from Gordon’s inner point of experience. This way we are guided by his energetic enthusiasm and genius.

Cherica integrated also some images of another project Gordon realised that year in Kassel, during Documenta 6, his “Jacob’s Ladder”. In fact, after Gordon’s initial sphere approach in Antwerp, she wanted to follow Gordon during several interventions he planned to make in that European summer 77.

The film shows a kind and talkative Gordon Matta-Clark. The film camera captures what the artist himself describes as a “dust, ruins, depravity and spatial complexity”. This 30-minute long film is an extraordinary source for analysing one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century in depth. Director Cherica Convents teamed up with creative editor Steven Perceval to realise this film.

Visit the website https://summer77.eu for more background information.