Hirofumi Sakamoto | The Spatial Construction of Film—On the Exhibitions "Sentiment, Sign, Passion: On Godard's 'Le Livre d'Image'" and "Pedro Costa: Inner Visions"
This article compares video installations by Godard and Costa, exploring the potential for spatial construction when filmmakers cross over into contemporary art.Summary
This article examines two video installation exhibitions held in Tokyo in the summer of 2025: Jean-Luc Godard's exhibition based on 'Le Livre d'Image' (remixed by Fabrice Aragno) and Pedro Costa's 'Inner Visions.' The author focuses on the insights these filmmakers, who lack an experimental film background, offer regarding the relationship between the screen and the audience.
The Godard exhibition utilized the unique space of the Ōjō Building, projecting fragmented footage from 'Le Livre d'Image' across numerous monitors and tulle screens, resulting in an overwhelming flood of images. While this risks diluting the Brechtian alienation effect present in Godard's late work, Aragno appears optimistic. In contrast, Costa's exhibition spatially arranges the distinct, shot-based aesthetics of his films, allowing the audience to navigate and reconstruct a cinematic pleasure akin to that experienced in a theater, aligning with cinephile desires.
The conclusion suggests that the potential for filmmakers transitioning into contemporary art hinges on how they relinquish the 'presence of the shot' maintained within the cinema. Costa ultimately did not relinquish it, whereas Godard and Aragno (at least in some versions) let go of it to attempt a spatial construction of the film.
(Source：artscape)