About

CHANTAL BY US 

Chantal Akerman - Interdisciplinary Biographies in a Theater of Care

by/with - Paula Dunker, Nicoleta Lefter, Mihaela Michailov, Katia Pascariu, Laura Săvuțiu, Vlaicu Golcea, in collaboration with Ema Onofrei, Laurence Ermacova, Monica Stoica, Alex Radu, and works by Mircea Suciu

"Chantal by us", Chantal Akerman and her book My Mother Laughs. Interdisciplinary biographies in a theater of care. A series of performances, video-sound installations, and image-objects at /SAC Berthelot, starting November 12. As many rooms, as many situations; as many walls, as many instances. They tell stories of transgenerational trauma, aging and vulnerability, care work, the tense relationship between art, real space/intimate space/socio-political space, and labor, engaging in dialogue with the vast and unique work of a 20th-century iconic artist. The presented works speak about how this body of work is perceived today and resonates with the local and intimate-personal realities of the involved artists. The project is a theatrical exploration, an interdisciplinary research laboratory, and a hybrid attempt to respond to art through art, speaking about life and death.

"Chantal by us" is an experimental-exploratory theater project that is re-structured and re-composed within an exhibition (gallery) space, presenting performances - by/with Paula Dunker, Katia Pascariu, and Nicoleta Lefter - audio and video installations - by Vlaicu Golcea and Laura Săvuțiu - and performative video works - by/with Paula Dunker, Katia Pascariu, Mihaela Michailov, and Laura Săvuțiu. These elements are accompanied by a radical, dramatic counterpoint in visual linguistics (and stylistics), achieved through Mircea Suciu’s works, whose themes intertwine with/continue/extend/verticalize the themes explored in "Chantal by us". His works comment (even through their titles) and function similarly in reopening/reinterpreting/recontextualizing significant (historical) visual-cultural references layered into a present-day, personal/artistic life, presented at /SAC (Berthelot) as co-present temporalities.

Chantal Akerman (1950, Brussels - 2015, Paris), filmmaker, writer, and multimedia artist, was a pioneer in feminist and experimental cinema. Her Polish parents survived the Holocaust, a theme that became a recurring subject throughout her work: transgenerational trauma and the exploration of her Jewish identity. In 2022, Sight and Sound magazine named "Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" (1975) as the greatest film of all time. For the first time in 70 years, the renowned decennial survey ranked a film directed by a woman at the top, recognizing its conscious and radically feminist approach to cinema. Her work spans fiction, autofiction, documentaries, shorts, and feature films, and, after 1995, video installations in exhibition spaces such as Jeu de Paume, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Documenta 11, Palais de Tokyo, Venice Biennale, and São Paulo Biennale. Considered one of the most important European filmmakers of her generation, Akerman created over 15 video installations: “I want visitors to have a physical experience through the time used in each frame. I want time to unfold within them, to feel time seeping into them.”

“[…] why do you begin with a tragic comedy, where you play yourself.
And why does it seem like you abandon this to make experimental, silent films.
Why, as soon as you finish them overseas, do you return here, back to narrative.
Why do you stop acting and create a musical comedy.
Why make documentaries, then adapt Proust.
Why, on top of this, write—a play, a story.
Why make films about music.
And finally, another comedy.
More than this, for some time you’ve been creating installations. Without truly considering yourself an artist…
Because of the word artist.”

Chantal Akerman in Cahiers du Cinéma, 2004, p. 10

Dates: 12.11.24 - 25.01.25
Thursday-Saturday: 4 PM - 8 PM
/SAC - 5 Berthelot Street, intercom 10