Marcel Broodthaers
2021Here Is Always Somewhere Else
René Daalder
Bas Jan Ader, Tacita Dean
The life and work of enigmatic Dutch/Californian conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, who in 1975 disappeared under mysterious circumstances at sea in the smallest boat ever to cross the Atlantic. As seen through the eyes of fellow emigrant filmmaker René Daalder, the picture becomes a sweeping overview of contemporary art films as well as an epic saga of the transformative powers of the ocean.
Here Is Always Somewhere Else
La Clef de L'horloge (Poème cinémathographique en l’honneur de Kurt Schwitters)
Marcel Broodthaers
Broodthaers’s first film, Clef d’Horloge was made using a borrowed camera and some film stock that he had been given. It was shot at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1956, during an exhibition of works by Kurt Schwitters. The film is made in negative and positive and is based on several works that were on display. It premiered on 23 April 1958 at ‘Filmexprmntlfilm’, an experimental film convention in Brussels.
La Clef de L'horloge (Poème cinémathographique en l’honneur de Kurt Schwitters)
A Voyage on the North Sea
Marcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers’ film and book, both titled A Voyage on the North Sea which were distributed together as part and parcel of the same publishing plot. The ostensibly related subject of both book and film consists mutually of 19th and 20th century nautical images including: 1. photographic reproductions and details of an amateur’s 19th century painting of a fleet of fishing ships and 2. photographs of a contemporary sailboat.
A Voyage on the North Sea
La Pluie (Projet Pour Un Texte)
Marcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers
The film shows Marcel Broodthaers trying to write while the rain constantly washes away the ink. In the final scene, during which the artist gives up and drops his pen, the inscription “Projet pour un texte” (Project for a text) appears.
La Pluie (Projet Pour Un Texte)
A Film by Charles Baudelaire (Political Map of the World)
Marcel Broodthaers
The film purports to be the second version of a (fictional) film made by Baudelaire in 1850 in memory of his (actual) voyage across the Pacific. It was shot using a world map mounted on black board, filmed in its entirety and in extreme close-up.
A Film by Charles Baudelaire (Political Map of the World)
