The Third Life of Agnès Varda
silent green present the most comprehensive solo exhibition in Germany to date on the third and last creative period of the French filmmaker, photographer and visual artist Agnès Varda, who died in 2019.
Varda is regarded as one of the most influential creative personalities of our time, who reinvented herself constantly in the course of her life's work, which spanned more than six decades. However, the third creative period of the modern film pioneer is less well known in Germany. It began in 2003 at the Venice Biennale and comprises installation works that reflect Varda's joy in experimenting between documentary and the fiction formats, her poetic, abstract realism and her sensitive observations of socio-political issues in various visual media.
The exhibition presents photographs, films and video formats that Varda combined to create cross-media installations. Playing with the still and moving image, with genres, matter and forms of representation, Varda constantly opens up new dimensions and transitions. She created works that are dedicated to the magic of the supposedly banal and give new meaning to what is seen as discarded, both in terms of content and through recycled materials.
Besides the main exhibition at Betonhalle and the two cinema shacks on the lawn, a very special installation will be on display in our Kuppelhalle from July 10 to 20: Hommage aux Justes de France / Homage to the Righteous of France, a work commemorating the "Justes", those often forgotten who saved the lives of Jews during the German occupation of France, risking their own lives in the process. In 2007, the work entered the Panthéon in Paris and has since become an important memorial to the Second World War.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the film series Passages at Arsenal cinema, showing selected films by Varda whose motifs are reflected in the exhibition and which reveal different connections across her entire oeuvre. The curators will also be hosting talk evenings with guest speakers at silent green. Furthermore, there will be a presentation of the exhibition catalogue published by silent green and Spector Books, as well as workshops on Varda's artistic practice and guided exhibition tours.
DATES
09.06. Opening exhibition The Third Life of Agnès Varda, Betonhalle
10./17./26.06. I 15./16./17.07. Guided exhibition tours with Nathalie David (DE/FR)
11.06. Curators exhibition tour with Julia Fabry (EN) and Dominique Bluher (DE)
11.06.–17.07. Film series Passages at Arsenal cinema
12.06. Catalogue presentation „The Third Life of Agnès Varda" (Spector Books) (EN)
16.06. Roundtable: Jean-Michel Frodon in conversation with Dominique Bluher and Julia Fabry (EN)
25.06. Kids workshop Bildersammeln mit Agnès Varda with Maria Mohr and Stefanie Schlüter (DE)
02./03.07. Super-8-Film-Workshop Feeling Agnès with Dagie Brundert (DE/EN)
07.07. Talk Erika Balsom: Retrospection and Recycling in the works of Agnès Varda (EN)
10.07. Opening installation Hommage aux Justes de France, Introduction: Uta Fröhlich (Gedenkstätte Stille Helden), Kuppelhalle
13.07. Talk Gertrud Koch: Bild-Räume. Agnès Vardas Reise in die Installation (DE)
20.07. Finissage exhibition / open air screening Sans toit ni loi/Vagabond, OmE
Some of the talk events in the context of the Varda exhibition can be found on our YouTube-Kanal
And here you find some nice articles in English for you to read up on:
Kat Sachs on MUBI Notebook: The Third Life of Agnès Varda
The Exberliner Magazin: Love, death and potatoes
an on the curators collaboration with Agnés Varda
Kate Channer on Berlin Art Link
A project by silent green Film Feld Forschung gGmbH, in cooperation with Ciné-Tamaris and the Estate of Agnès Varda.
Film series in cooperation with Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art e.V.
Curators: Dominique Bluher, Julia Fabry
Artistic Director: Bettina Ellerkamp
Project Management: Linda Winkler
Production Management: Merlind David
Communication: Hannah Osenberg