Screening & Artist Talk: Eric Baudelaire

For his artist talk, Paris-based artist Eric Baudelaire will screen two films that are not included in his Hammer Project: The Makes (2010) and [SIC] (2009). In The Makes, Baudelaire adopts the format of a DVD bonus track presented as a staged interview with Philippe Azoury, a specialist on Italian filmmaker Michaelangelo Antonioni and famous film critic for the French newspaper Libération, about a purported remake of an Antonioni film he planned to make in Japan in the 1960s, which was never realized but was discussed in his 1983 book That Bowling Alley on the Tiber, a compilation of notes and intentions for films that were never made. In his film [SIC], Baudelaire explores the Japanese practice of bokashi, self-censorship wherein obscenity is defined as “that which unnecessarily excites or stimulates sexual desire.” Taking place in a Japanese bookstore, a woman methodically leafs through a shipment of books and scratches the surface of specific images. Defacing images that would not typically be deemed sexual explicit, Baudelaire’s film explores the role of images in our society.

Videos to be screened include:

The Makes, 2010
26 minutes

[SIC], 2009
15 minutes

Following the screening, Eric Baudelaire will be in conversation with art historian George Baker.

In conjunction with the exhibition Hammer Projects: Eric Baudelaire.