Julie Chaffort

Jour blanc
10.16–11.22.2014
Room 2

CLARK presents the first solo exhibition by Bordeaux artist and filmmaker Julie Chaffort. Jour Blanc is the result of a residency created in partnership with the Zebra3/Buyselff organization in Bordeaux. This research period allowed the artist to reflect on the installation of her work within a gallery context, whereas previously, her work has been primarily shown in film festivals. At the heart of her practice is a continued interest in childhood and the memories that surface bit by bit, lose their accuracy, or disappear with time. For the artist, a “jour blanc” (a white day) – referencing a poem of the same name by Arseni Tarkovski – is a time when one is allowed to start over from scratch, to erase everything and return to a blank page.

Everything takes shape through the landscape. Within a natural décor, the artist stages her surrealist paintings. The 2014 fictional short, titled Pas un bruit, is a piece that oscillates between reality and fantasy. Presented on a monitor, the film allows the viewer to discover the artist’s previous work, which in this case, is richly nostalgic. At the centre of the installation, other images by Chaffort, filmed during her residency, echo the other works. One of these projections shows a landscape disappearing beneath a dark and dense fog. The effects of light on the landscape transform it, and the movement of the fog acts as a kind of breath. Another piece shows a turntable shot in different locations. The turntable emits the sound of howling wolves, adding humour to the incongruous scene, as if the music was being played for the landscape. Finally, the artist displays the wind in all of its power, blowing against the subjects who struggle mightily against this invisible force.

Finally, a sound installation will strongly engage viewers aurally, as well as visually. Chafford employs a drone whose repetitive but unpredictable noise produces a physical effect on the audience. The viewer’s endurance is tested, much like the subjects in her films, whose actions she directs for the camera. Here, the viewer becomes an actor within the installation. Chaffort constructs scenarios that become transformed during the shooting process, based on the actors’ poses or by unforeseen actions that occur. The artist asks: how long can we make a shot last? Here, she plays with the notion of expectation and action within works that encourage contemplation and dreaming.

Manon Tourigny / translation : Jo-Anne Balcaen