{"id":4723,"date":"2018-03-09T10:50:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T09:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lantb.net\/figure\/?p=4723"},"modified":"2018-03-10T16:54:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T15:54:21","slug":"leo-goldsmith-souvenirs-dutopie-les-modeles-de-collages-de-france-de-jean-luc-godard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lantb.net\/figure\/?p=4723","title":{"rendered":"Leo Goldsmith. Souvenirs d’utopie : les mod\u00e8les de Collages de France de Jean-Luc Godard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMemories of Utopia: Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s \u2018Collages de France\u2019 Models\u201d<\/a>
\nMIGUEL ABREU GALLERY<\/a>, New York \u2014 January 14\u2013March 11, 2018<\/p>\n

In 2006, French filmmaker and polymath Jean-Luc Godard was commissioned to curate an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, devising a series of 18 maquettes\u2014nine large, nine small\u2014as a plan for \u201cCollage(s) de France: Archaeology of the Cinema.\u201d The exhibition would link a series of rooms\u2014each with its own title, like \u201cMyth (allegory of cinema),\u201d \u201cThe Camera (metaphor),\u201d and \u201cThe Real (reverie)\u201d\u2014featuring objects, artworks, and videos. The result would be a kind of funhouse excursion through the director\u2019s major themes and obsessions: cinematic and media images, the patrimonies of Europe, Hollywood, and their cultural and ideological peripheries.
\nBut the exhibition was not to be: after two years of work, Godard abruptly abandoned the project, leaving the museum\u2019s then-director of cultural development, Dominique Pa\u00efni, to construct an attenuated version in its place: \u201cTravel(s) in Utopia, Jean-Luc Godard 1946\u20132006, In Search of a Lost Theorem,\u201d in which paintings by Nicolas de Sta\u00ebl and Henri Matisse were exhibited in proximity to excerpts from films by Godard and his idols (like Fritz Lang and Robert Bresson) and collaborators (like his longtime partner Anne-Marie Mi\u00e9ville).
\nWhile Godard\u2019s original idea for the show was never realized, his maquettes (all from 2004\u00ad\u00ad\u20132006)\u2014eventually deposited in one of the rooms of the exhibition\u2014remain, and these form the basis of \u201cMemories of Utopia.\u201d Intricately, if shabbily, constructed from a bewildering set of materials\u2014foamcore, watercolor, felt pen, wood, glue, plexiglass, motorized mechanisms, lamps, iPods, books, and all kinds of stray junk\u2014these maquettes are perhaps in themselves more satisfying than the exhibition they envisage, offering a playfully diminutive, dollhouse-like treatment of a rather bombastic set of ideas. In this form, Godard\u2019s show at Miguel Abreu, spread across the gallery\u2019s two locations and supplemented with videos, sketches, and reading materials, takes on the pedagogical character hinted at in its punning title (which alludes to the Coll\u00e8ge de France), constructing a space of \u201cfree research.\u201d
\nEn 2006, le cin\u00e9aste et artiste polymorphe fran\u00e7ais Jean-Luc Godard a \u00e9t\u00e9 charg\u00e9 d’organiser une exposition au Centre Pompidou, concevant une s\u00e9rie de 18 maquettes \u2014neuf grandes, neuf petites\u2014 comme un plan pour Collage (s) de France: Arch\u00e9ologie de la <\/em><\/span>Cin\u00e9ma.<\/em> \u00ab\u00a0L’exposition devait relier une s\u00e9rie de pi\u00e8ces \u2014chacune avec son propre titre, comme\u00a0\u00bb Mythe (all\u00e9gorie du cin\u00e9ma) \u00ab\u00a0,\u00a0\u00bb La Cam\u00e9ra (m\u00e9taphore) \u00ab\u00a0et\u00a0\u00bb Le R\u00e9el (r\u00eaverie) \u00ab\u00a0\u2014 mettant en vedette des objets, des \u0153uvres, <\/span>et des vid\u00e9os. <\/span>Le r\u00e9sultat serait une sorte d’excursion de type fun house<\/em> \u00e0 travers les principaux th\u00e8mes et obsessions du r\u00e9alisateur: les images cin\u00e9matographiques et m\u00e9diatiques, les patrimoines de l’Europe, Hollywood, et leurs p\u00e9riph\u00e9ries culturelles et id\u00e9ologiques.
\n<\/span>Mais l’exposition ne devait pas avoir lieu : apr\u00e8s deux ans de travail, Godard abandonna brusquement le projet, laissant \u00e0 Dominique Pa\u00efni, alors directeur du d\u00e9veloppement culturel du mus\u00e9e, la construction d’une version raccourcie \u00e0 sa place: \u00abVoyage (s) en Utopie, <\/span>Jean-Luc Godard 1946-2006, \u00c0 la recherche d’un th\u00e9or\u00e8me perdu\u00bb, dans laquelle des tableaux de Nicolas de Sta\u00ebl et Henri Matisse \u00e9taient expos\u00e9s \u00e0 proximit\u00e9 d’extraits de films de Godard et de ses idoles (comme Fritz Lang et Robert Bresson) et collaborateurs (<\/span>comme son partenaire de longue date Anne-Marie Mi\u00e9ville).
\n<\/span>Alors que l’id\u00e9e originale de Godard pour la manifestation n’a jamais \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9alis\u00e9e, ses maquettes (toutes de 2004 \u00e0 2006) \u2014finalement d\u00e9pos\u00e9es dans l’une des salles de l’exposition\u2014 subsistent, et elles forment la base de \u00abSouvenirs d’utopie\u00bb<\/span>, construites \u00e0 partir d’un ensemble d\u00e9concertant de mat\u00e9riaux \u2014mousse, aquarelle, feutre, bois, colle, plexiglass, m\u00e9canismes motoris\u00e9s, lampes, iPods, livres et toutes sortes de d\u00e9chets\u2014 ces maquettes sont peut-\u00eatre plus satisfaisantes que l’exposition <\/span>pr\u00e9vue, offrant un traitement ludique en petit, comme une maison de poup\u00e9e d’un ensemble d’id\u00e9es plut\u00f4t grandiloquentes. <\/span>Sous cette forme, la manifestation de Godard chez Miguel Abreu, r\u00e9parti sur les deux emplacements de la galerie et compl\u00e9t\u00e9 par des vid\u00e9os, des croquis et des supports de lecture, reprend le caract\u00e8re p\u00e9dagogique \u00e9voqu\u00e9 dans son titre punitif\u00a0 (qui fait allusion au Coll\u00e8ge de France), construisant un <\/span>espace de \u00ab\u00a0recherche libre\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Pompidou\u2019s press release for \u201cTravel(s)\u201d applies just as well to Godard\u2019s original designs: \u201ca poetic and philosophical meditation based on a link-up method\u2014a montage of images borrowed from the history of art and the cinema, current events and [Godard\u2019s] films.\u201d Godard\u2019s relation to traditions of collage and montage has dominated the reception of his work since the beginning of his career in the late 1950s. In 1965, no less a figure than Louis Aragon placed him squarely in the same lineage as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso (and, by extension, yoking cinema with a tradition of painting). It was on the same grounds that he drew the derision of the French avant-garde, notably the Situationists, who saw in Godard\u2019s work a crass banalization of their own more polemical methods. What could be more damning, after all, than the famous \u201calternate title\u201d of Godard\u2019s 1966 film Masculin F\u00e9minin\u2014\u201cThe Children of Marx and Coca-Cola\u201d\u2014which reduces collage\u2019s radical juxtapositions to the stultifying onslaught of commercial image-making?
\nLe communiqu\u00e9 de presse de Pompidou \u00ab\u00a0Voyage (s)\u00a0\u00bb s’applique aussi bien aux cr\u00e9ations originales de Godard: \u00ab\u00a0une m\u00e9ditation po\u00e9tique et philosophique bas\u00e9e sur une m\u00e9thode de liaison \u2014un montage d’images emprunt\u00e9es \u00e0 l’histoire de l’art et du cin\u00e9ma, \u00e0 l’actualit\u00e9 <\/span>et aux films de [Godard]. \u00bb Le rapport de Godard aux traditions du collage et du montage a domin\u00e9 la r\u00e9ception de son travail depuis le d\u00e9but de sa carri\u00e8re \u00e0 la fin des ann\u00e9es 1950. <\/span>En 1965, pas moins un personnage comme Louis Aragon le place carr\u00e9ment dans la m\u00eame lign\u00e9e que Georges Braque et Pablo Picasso (et, par extension, accouplant le cin\u00e9ma \u00e0 une tradition de peinture). <\/span>C’est pour les m\u00eames raisons qu’il a tourn\u00e9 en\u00a0 d\u00e9rision l’avant-garde fran\u00e7aise, notamment les situationnistes, qui ont vu dans l’\u0153uvre de Godard une grossi\u00e8re banalisation de leurs propres m\u00e9thodes plus pol\u00e9miques. <\/span>Quoi de plus accablant, apr\u00e8s tout, que le fameux \u00abtitre alternatif\u00bb du film Masculin F\u00e9minin<\/em> de Godard\u00a0 que <\/span>Les enfants de Marx et Coca-Cola<\/em> qui r\u00e9duit les juxtapositions radicales du collage \u00e0 l’assaut destructeur de l’image commerciale?
\n