“JOURNEY TO THE MOON, 7 FRAGMENTS FOR GEORGES MÉLIÈS, DAY FOR NIGHT”

William Kentridge

 

(EN) Synopsis

This first exhibition of William Kentridge in Portugal included the installations Journey to the Moon, 2003, and 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès including Day for Night, 2003, originally produced for (and first shown) at BAC-Baltic Art Center Visby, Sweden, and also the animated films Felix in Exile (1994) and History of the Main Complaint (1996), presented in documenta X, in 1997.

In 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, William Kentridge’s source of inspiration is the work of Georges Méliès, a son of a rich shoemaker, born in Paris in 1861. After finishing his fine art studies, Georges Méliès bought the Theatre of Robert Houdin and started showing movies, before making and producing films himself.

About Journey to the Moon, William Kentridge writes: “A bullet-shaped rocket crashes into the surface of the moon, a fat cigar plunged into a round face. When I first saw the film of Méliès at the beginning of this project, I realized that I knew this image long before I heard of Georges Méliès, I was already far advanced in the making of the fragments for Méliès. Until then I had resisted the narrative pressures, wondering about the premises of this series of works, which usually happens when the artist begins to walk around in the studio. The conclusion was the need to make at least one film that surrendered to a narrative thrust.”

Day for Night has its origin from an exercise of filming ants in the artist’s studio, while working on the films of Méliès: “At this stage I was working on Journey to the Moon, the penultimate and most complicated of the Méliès pieces, when I was rammed by the idea of reversing the film and use the ants for some of the night sequences in the journey.”

William Kentridge became famous throughout the world by his animated short films made from charcoal drawings. However, his involvement with the world of the arts began with theater, first as a designer and actor, most recently as a director. Kentridge has been working with the Handspring Puppet Company since 1992 in a series of multimedia shows involving actors, puppets, video projections, animation, words and music. Although, throughout his career, Kentridge has touched the areas of film and theater, painting continues to be the driving force of his art. In fact, the artist considers that his works, whether of animation or theater, are only extensions of his painting.

Born in Johannesburg in 1955, he lives and works in South Africa.

 

Journey to the Moon (2003)
16mm film, 35mm film and mini-DV transferred to DVD, sound, 7’10”
Soundtrack: Philip Miller
Editor: Catherine Meyburg
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris

 

7 Fragments for Georges Méliès (2003)
16mm film, 35mm film and mini-DV transferred to DVD, sound, 16’10”
Editing: Catherine Meyburg
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris

 

Day for Night (2003)
16 mm film and mini-DV transferred to DVD, sound, 7′
Editing: Catherine Meyburg
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris