Through his practice of video, installation and painting, Gaspar Willmann takes possession of everyday objects, forms and images, mobilizing collective representations and behaviors to question their circulation and what is at stake in the context of a technocratic society that acts on affects.
During this evening entitled "Housekeeping standards", Gaspar Willmann will present three films. The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist and writer, translator and art curator Katia Porro.
Empty Spaces (2018, 1’54”, English)
A silent nod to the feeling in the eyes of Seth Price (2002), Empty Spaces is a slideshow of holiday rentals in Charente Maritime. A poem read by an American vacationer completes the picture of an uberized and terribly banal tourism.
The Unknown Man (2019, 7’27”, English with French subtitles)
The Unknown Man is very real, so it tells its own story. Famedya54, embodied here as James, is an actor from the website fiverr.com, an online marketplace for self-employed workers. Above his profile you can read "Camera shy? Use a professional spokesperson video to hype your brand". The mental space, the decor builds, around the protagonist, at his home-office is a media fresco where the painted elements, liquefied between them, envelop its occupant. No brushes or real scissors here: a collection of airbnb images, news items and other found footage are digitally assembled together and constitute the sugar of the video, where editing remains king.
Vous êtes chez vous (2020, 5’04”, English)
The spoken word is confused, the mistake is obvious. Believing he was speaking to Madame Boutemy, the anxious interlocutor deplores the fact that his airBnB rental at 33 rue Saint Claude, in La Rochelle, is visibly visited in her absence. A paranoia is palpable and offers a golden pretext to start a confined project. Jean-Philippe Vernet, because this is how he presents himself, will be the protagonist of the story. The decor is fabricated and in the manner of a stalker, the artist’s investigation-mounting, from his room, sheds light on the individual and his apartment.
Gaspar Willmann (France) is in residence at the Cité internationale des arts through the program of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.