"Le Saut dans le vide" at Caroline Collective in Houston

Caroline Collective, Houston's first coworking space, will kick off a monthly movie screening series this Friday, July 25th with Independent Exposure's Best Of 2007 Edition curated by Hal Hartley, featuring "Le Saut dans le vide" (The Leap Into The Void, 2004). Future Final Fridays screenings (the last Friday of every month) will showcase the entire 2008 Independent Exposure season presented and curated by Microcinema International and Asthmatic Kitty.
posted 25 July 2008

"I'm a New York Based Artist" at Black Box, Belfast

"I'm a New York Based Artist" (2007) will be screened by Catalyst Arts at Black Box, Belfast, at 8 pm on July 10th, the first of two evenings of shorts by emerging video artists and filmmakers, followed by an informal showing of the feature 'Bodysong,' with soundtrack by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. Other shorts being featured include works by Myrto Stampoulon,  Brooke White, Shosh Isra Eli Grosg,  Otto Schlindwein,  Hilary Williams, Lisa Byrne, Mark Hewitt, Ger Consadine, Paul Timoney, Susanne Stitch, Sarah Leary Intergenerational Arts, Seamus Harahan, Alex Kazaam and Jonathan Sammon. Download the Black Box flyer.
posted 8 July 2008

Heure Exquise organizes MusicvideoArt 3

With MusicvideoArt 3, Heure Exquise, Le Centre international pour les arts vidéo, proposes  an international selection of clips and "music videos" on 20 June. The event will be held at Trait d'Union, Maison Folie du Fort de Mons, in Mons-en-Baroeul, France. The program will feature music videos by Pascal Lièvre, Robert Cahen, Pierre Yves Clouin and others from the Heure Exquise catalogue and beyond.
posted 28 April 2008

"I'm a New York Based Artist" at Catalyst Arts

"I'm a New York Based Artist" (2007) has been selected to be screened in the Artist's Short Films Evening at Catalyst Arts, Belfast, at 9 pm on June 5th, along with works by Frances Hayes, Richard Davis, Gareth Mayes, Dawn Hannah, Marcin Ostasz, Kate McCullough, Gus Sutherland, Tom Flanagan, Jonathon Beer, Gary Dower, Patrick Corcoran, Maureen O’Connell, James Hamilton & Kat, James Slattery, Veronica Forsgren, Kate Hollett, Ayfer Mills, Myrto Stampoulon, Sarah Leary Intergenerational Arts, Mark Hewitt and Ger Considine. Download the flyer.
posted 5 June 2008

"I'm a New York Based Artist" in competition at Athens International Film & Video Festival

"I'm a New York Based Artist" (2007) has been selected in competition at the Athens International Film & Video Festival 2008, which is running 25 April to 1 May, in Athens, Ohio. "I'm a New York Based Artist" will be screened in the Cinematic Portraits program, at 1 pm on Wednesday, April 30, at the Athena Cinema. The program will also feature films and video works by Ronnie Cramer,  Karen Hines, Laska Jimsen, Tiffany Shlain, Marcel Sawicki, Lauren Greenfield and George Kuchar.
posted 18 April 2008

Let It Be, a program curated by Akram Zaatari, Beirut, Lebanon

Home Works IV: A Forum on Cultural Practices, to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, April 12-20, will feature Let It Be, a film and video program curated by Akram Zaatari that will include "Kangaroo" (1998), "Cul en l’air" (1997), "Point P" (2000, premier) and "My Hands Are Shaking" (2001), along with works by Rodney Werden, Nathalie Djurberg, Sterling Ruby, Pierrick Sorin, Mounir Fatmi,  Hans Peter Ammann, Naufus Figuera, Nelson Henricks,  Laeticia Bourget, Jean Gabriel Periot and John Lindell. Let it Be will be screened at Masrah Al Madina, Wednesday, April 16 (10pm), and at Bernard Khoury Ateliers, Friday, April 18 (10:30pm).
posted 31 March 2008

"Bless My Soul" in Videolab Session at the Electrochoc Festival

"Bless My Soul" (2007) is included in a Videolab Session at the Electrochoc Festival. Invited by the French artists' collective Le Matrice, Videolab Project of Portugal will present three video sessions in the Halle Grenette, in Bourgoin Jallieu, France, as part of the Electrochoc Festival. The festival, in its third year, is organized by Scène de Musiques Actuelles Les Abattoirs, and will take place from March 28 to April 19. Download the press release and program (in English).
posted 31 March 2008

2007

"Le Saut dans le vide" in The Best of Independent Exposure 2007

"Le Saut dans le vide" (The Leap Into The Void, 2004) has been selected by Hal Hartley for The Best of Independent Exposure 2007. The program gets its premiere screening at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco on November 19 at 8 pm. Independent Exposure is Microcinema International's worldwide screening series and touring program.
Update: "Le Saut dans le vide" (The Leap Into The Void) received a Jury Mention in the Best of Independent Exposure 2007 competition.
updated 11 February 2008

"I'm a New York Based Artist" in Trunk

"I'm a New York Based Artist" (2007) has been selected to participate in Trunk, The Nordic Art Video Festival to be held in Östersund, Sweden from November 21 to 25. "I'm a New York Based Artist" will be screening at the Cinema Regina on Wednesday, November 21 and Friday, November 23 at 3 pm (program "E").
updated 12 November 2007

"I'm a New York Based Artist" in Raw

"I'm a New York Based Artist" (2007) will be screened (premiere) at RAW: Video Art & Dining, curated by Joshua Katcher, at Monkey Town, located at 58 N 3rd St, Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York, on November 14. The program will feature video works by Kisito Assangni, Tuomo Kangasmaa, Miro Soares, Johanna Torkkola, Jun'ichiro Ishii, Phil Sawdon, Alexia de Ville de Goyet, Kjell Bjorgeengen, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Frederic Lavoie, Dominic Gagnon, Cary Peppermint & Christine Nadir, Maarit Suomi-Vaananen, Lili White, Hester Scheurwater, JoEllen Martinson & William Rees, and Sharon Mooney, along with a menu by chefs Matt Downes & Brandi Kowalski.
posted 3 November 2007

"Bless My Soul" in Mix Brasil

"Bless My Soul" (2007) has been selected to participate (premiere) in the 15th Mix Brasil Film and Video Festival of Sexual Diversity, which runs in São Paulo from November 13-22. "Bless My Soul" will be screening in a program of short films entitled Sexy Boys at Cinesesc on 18 November at 10 pm, at Unibanco 1 on 20 November at 9 pm, and again at Cinesesc on 21 November at 10 pm.

The festival will then be touring and "Bless My Soul" will be screened in:

Porto Alegre
Usina do Gasômetro - 26 November - 8 pm

Rio de Janeiro
Cine Palácio - 1 December - 9 pm

Brasília
Teatro da Caixa - 21 December - 9 pm.

updated 12 November 2007

"Le Saut dans le vide" in Mind Over Matter 2007

"Le Saut dans le vide" (The Leap Into The Void, 2004) has been selected for Independent Exposure 2007 and released in the DVD compilation Mind Over Matter 2007, by Blackchair Collection. Independent Exposure is a worldwide Microcinema screening program of international short films, videos, and digital works.

Screenings of Mind Over Matter 2007:

Central Cinema, Seattle
Wednesday, 9 May

Axiom Theatre, Houston
Friday, 15 June

111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
Monday, 25 June

Aqus Café, Petaluma, California
Friday, 28 September

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Friday, 2 November

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Saturday, 3 November

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Sunday, 4 November

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Friday, 9 November

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Saturday, 10 November

Out North, Anchorage, Alaska
Sunday, 11 November

updated 12 November 2007

"Phone Home" on ADD-TV

"Phone Home" (2003) will be broadcast in "Trade," Episode 47 of ADD-TV presented by George Lyter and Bipolar Productions on Manhattan Time Warner / MNN Channel 34 in Manhattan, New York, at 10 pm on August 2. "Trade" features Stephen Pevner's "Schwarzwald" with Colton Ford and Buck Angel, Royal Lush in "My Hustler Boyfriend" by Peter Pizzi, and "Turn to Nowhere" by Argel Rojo. View the trailer. The program will be streaming live on MNN.org.
Update: "Phone Home" has been nominated for Best Short/Experimental work in ADD-TV's Pill Awards 2008. View "Phone Home" online.
updated 11 February 2008

"Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?" on ADD-TV

"Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?" (But Why are You So Wet?, 2003) will be broadcast in "Cage," Episode 46 of ADD-TV presented by George Lyter and Bipolar Productions on Manhattan Time Warner / MNN Channel 34 in Manhattan, New York, at 10 pm on July 5. View the trailer. The program will be streaming live on MNN.org.
updated 24 June 2007

"Workman" in Reims

"Workman" (1998, New Visions Silver Spire Arward, San Francisco International Film Festival 1999) will be screened in a program presented by Heure Exquise! that will also feature work by Jacques Louis Nyst and Danièle Nyst, Robert Cahen, Emmanuel Brillard and Isabelle Froment, Pierrick Sorin, Laëtitia Bourget, Sabine Massenet, Joël Bartoloméo, Valérie Pavia, Mounir Fatmi, and Unglee. The program will be presented Friday, May 25, at 2:30 pm, at the Médiathèque Jean Falala in Reims during "Mai de l'art vidéo : Un art contemporain" (May 14 - 26).
posted 1 May 2007

"Finger Puppets" in Reflets du cinéma

"Finger Puppets" (2001) was screened at the 2007 Reflets du cinéma Festival, which was themed "Frontiers" and held in and around Laval, France, March 13-27. Featured in the program "Experiencing Limits, Experimental Film and Video Art" organized in association with Le Carré, "Finger Puppets" was screened at the Géneteil Chapel in Château-Gontier on March 24.
posted 28 March 2007

Media Museum Virtual Theatre at the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Works by P.Y. Clouin were screened in "Moving Images," a program presented by the Media Art Lab Center for Art and Culture, Moscow, for the Media Museum Virtual Theatre at the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, on 24 March at the Theatre of the Nations. The program also included works by Isabel Martin, Hartmut Jahan, Clodette Lemay, William Wegman, Jozef Rotakovsky, Werther Germondari, Eric Olofsen, Eliza Fernbach and others. The program was announced in the Contemporary Art Review.
posted 27 April 2008

2006

"Waiting" in Paris

"Waiting" (2006) will be screened at 10pm on Monday, November 27 at Le Cinéma du Monde in the program "actions réactions" during Les Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin. The festival will be taking place in Paris from November 23 to December 2, with screenings at the Jeu de Paume, the Cinémathèque Française, Théâtre Paris-Villette, L'Entrepôt and Le Cinéma du Monde.
updated 19 November 2006

"Les Affranchis" and "John Who?" in Paris

"Les Affranchis" (Goodfellas, 2006, photo left, premiere) and "John Who?" (2006, photo right) will be screening at the 12ème Festival de Films Gays & Lesbiens de Paris, in the "Sexpérimental" program curated by Philippe Donadini. The progam will be screening at the Cinéma du Monde on Sunday, November 19, at 9pm. The festival runs November 14-21.
updated 31 October 2006

What to see at the Festival de Films Gays et Lesbiens de Paris: "Sexperimental," The Event

...We'll follow leading artists of LGBT video art recognized in festivals and museums around the world: Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Lamathilde and Pierre Yves Clouin...
- Louis Maury, Tetu.com

"Le saut dans le vide" in New York City

"Le saut dans le vide" (The Leap Into the Void, 2004) will be screened Thursday, November 9 at 10pm, during the 19th edition of MIX, the NY Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival, which runs from November 8-13, 2006 at the new 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York City.
posted 20 September 2006

"Mon Lapin bleu" and "Front Room" in Kiev

"Mon Lapin bleu" (Honey Bunny, 1999, photo left) and "Front Room" (1996, photo right) will be screened in a program of shorts from the Festival de Films Gays & Lesbiens de Paris curated by Philippe Donadini, at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, in Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine (October 21-29).
posted 2 October 2006

"Mont St. Michel," "Waiting" and "John Who?"in Weimar

"Mont St. Michel" (2005, photo top left), "Waiting" (2006, photo top right) and "John Who?" (2006, photo left, premiere) were featured — along with videoworks by Augustin Gimel — in a special "backup.forum" screening on October 19, at the 2006 BackUp Festival: New Media in Film in Weimar, Germany. The festival continued from October 19th through the 22nd.
posted 2 November 2006

"Mont St. Michel" in Hamburg

"Mont St. Michel" (2005, photo) will be premiering at the 22. Internationales Kurz Film Festival Hamburg in the program "On the Fringes of Humour." The festival will be running from 31 May to 5 June.
posted 26 April 2006

"Waiting" in Iowa City

A tip of the hat to a literary icon, and a personal reflection of the filmmaker - ICDOCS

"Waiting" (2006, photo) premiered at the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, which was held at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City April 12-15.
updated 26 April 2006

"The Bleating Calf" in Casablanca

"The Bleating Calf" (1995) was screened at the Casablanca International Video Art Festival in a program featuring work by winners of the Vidéoformes video creation prizes. Organized by the University Hassan II, the festival ran from March 20 to 25 (details in French).
updated 7 April 2006

2005

"Kangaroo" screens in Aix-en-Provence

"Kangaroo" (1998) was screened on December 7, in a program curated by Jürgen Kittel, programming director of the Hamburg International Film Festival, at the Festival Tout Courts: Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Aix-en-Provence, which ran in Aix-en-Provence, France, from December 6 to 10.
posted 10 December 2005

"The Bleating Calf" in Metz

"The Bleating Calf" (1995) was screened in a "best of" program that featured work by winners of the Vidéoformes video creation prizes since 1989. Produced in cooperation with Les yeux de l'ouïe, the program screened on November 7, at the Musiques Volantes festival in Metz, France.
posted 10 December 2005

"Reworked" excerpts aired in Canal+'s 10th Anniversary Nuit Gay

Excerpts from "Reworked" (2004) were broadcast in a segment entitled "Artix" during the 10th anniversary program of Canal+'s annual Nuit Gay. Produced by Dominant 7 and Les Programmes Courts et Créations Canal+, "Artix" was broadcast on Canal+ on October 21.

"Artix" and the entire Canal+ anniversary program got a preview screening on October 20 at the Forum des Images in Paris, during the 11e Festival des Films Gays et Lesbiens de Paris, which ran from October 14 to 23.
updated 20 November 2005

"Front Room" in Tranpédégouines'n'Roll at the Forum des Images, Paris

"Front Room" (1996) screened October 21 in Tranpédégouines'n'Roll presented by Shot in the Back, at the Forum des Images, Paris, during the 11e Festival des Films Gays et Lesbiens de Paris (Oct. 14 - 23). Tranpédégouines'n'Roll was produced by Philippe Donadini, Florence Fradelizi and Tom de Pekin.
updated 20 November 2005

Clouin's work featured in "Yo, la cámara" at Universidad de Buenos Aires

Yo, la cámara

Since the beginning of cinema, numerous directors have questioned first person narrative and sought to disactivate the technical system of the camera operating as a mediatizing machine. Exploring this frontier is one of the obsessions of creators like William Wegman, Marie-Ange Guilleminot and Pierre Yves Clouin. Going to the most extreme tension between the private and the public, walking this unstable ground, many of these works become confessions with an obscene perspective. In others, it has been and continues to be the more appropriate way to respect a singular and inalienable point of view.
- Sergio Wolf, "Yo, la cámara
October 5, 6, 12 & 13 - Universidad de Buenos Aires

"Reworked" screens at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp

"Reworked" (2004) screened at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp, Belgium, with "That Man: Peter Berlin", directed by Jim Tushinski, on September 8, 2005.
posted 10 October 2005

"Reworked" to be broadcast by ADD-TV in Manhattan

"Reworked" (2004) was aired during the 28th episode of ADD-TV entitled "Trip" on Thursday, August 4. ADD-TV is presented by George Lyter and Bi-Polar Productions and broadcast on MNN Channel 34 in Manhattan.

French fimmaker and video artist, Pierre Yves Clouin, has his long anticapated debuts on ADD-TV with his clever manipulation of Tom of Finland drawings in "Reworked." Using a video filter over these homo erotic drawings, Clouin brings new life and movement to these queer classics.
- George Lyter, ADD-TV

Quatrième Festival Expoésie

The Fourth Expoésie Festival, a multidisciplinary poetry festival featured screenings of Clouin's work. The festival was held June 30 to July 3 in Périgueux, France, is produced by Féroce Marquise and the magazine Ouste.

Les Yeux, La Nuit: Night of Video, Nancy, France

The second Night of Video was held in Nancy on June 17. "The Bleating Calf" was screened in the program Grotesquincongru. The all-night event was presented by Les yeux de l'ouie.

A trio of Clouin's in Philadelphia

"Built to Survive" (2001), "Shadow Box" (2000), and "Honey Bunny" (Mon lapin bleu, 1999) were screened at the 11th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Organized by the Philadelphia Film Society, the festival ran from July 7 to 18.
posted 25 February 2005

"Leap Into the Void" screens at 1st Macademia Video Festival in Argentina

"The Leap Into the Void" (Le saut dans le vide, 2004) was screened at the 1st Macadamia Video Festival held at the Alliance Française of Buenos Aires from June 22 to 24, and at MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario, from July 1 to 3.
updated 19 July 2005

"Reworked" to screen at Athens International Film and Video Festival

"Reworked" (2004) screened at the 32nd Annual Athens International Film and Video Festival held in Athens, Ohio, April 29 to May 5.
updated 8 June 2005

Carte blanche à Heure exquise! Corps à corps

Heure Exquise! presented a program of videos that explored the body and performance at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts, in Liège, Belgium, on April 27. The program, entitled "Corps à corps," featured work by Cathy Vogan, Heidi Kopfer, Jacky Chriqui, Michel Journiac & Gérard Cairaschi, Burt Larr, Laetitia Bourget, Nathalie Rich-Ferñandez, and Pierre-Yves Clouin.

"Reworked" and "Brad" screening at Mix 18

"Reworked" (2004) and "Brad" (2004, photo) screened at Mix — the 18th New York Queer Experimental Media Festival — during the Opening Night Happening on April 7, at the Gallery, in New York City. Clouin's work was featured in the "Collective Projection Celebration," along with works by Rob Roth & Theo Kogan, Andy Warhol, Barbara Rubin, Michel Auder, and Nick Nehez. The festival ran from April 7 to 12, at Anthology Film Archives.
updated 8 June 2005

San Francisco Arts Monthly

Exploring the Offbeat World of Experimental Film

Even the most ardent movie buffs often stop short of embracing experimental film. Although this neglected stepchild of independent cinema conjures images of gritty film stock, atonal music and non-linear or non-existent plot, it is a category of filmmaking in which many innovations start and creativity blooms, unfettered by commercial pressures or the glare of publicity. Its practitioners, obscure to all but a few devotees, are often defiantly individualistic and oblivious to audience appeal, which can pose a problem for exhibitors.

"I'm not sure if I could claim to know the public's attitude toward experimental film or whether 'resistance' would be an appropriate word to use," says Steve Polta, administrative director of San Francisco Cinematheque, a leading proponent and presenter of experimental, personally expressive film, video and cutting-edge media. "I would venture that much of the work we screen, be it historical or contemporary, documentary, narrative or experimental, differs from most mainstream media in that it is not necessarily easy… Much of the work we present is complex and encourages — and rewards — active engagement on the viewer's part." …

The controversial, award-winning French video artist Pierre-Yves Clouin has been called, among other things, "the master of innuendo and metamorphosis." Part renegade philosopher, part exhibitionist, Clouin uses his body as battleground and movie set. He is the subject of "We Cannot Exhibit It: The Videos of Pierre-Yves Clouin,"… [presented by the San Francisco Cinematheque in April 2005, see below].

"As both director and star of his growing body of work, Clouin focuses his lens on [unexpected] parts of the male body … like armpits and shoulders, the small of the back and the top of the head," wrote Rajendra Roy in 2001 on the website C-x-P. (Roy is the former manager of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Film and Media Arts Program.) "Clouin works like a video Venus Flytrap, seducing audiences with intimate close-ups of curves and orifices on his own well-sculpted body. Just when you think you recognize what's on-screen, the body unfolds and you realize you just got turned on by shoulder cleavage or by a particularly sexy earlobe… Clouin has some sexy advice for the body-obsessed among us: 'Accept pleasure whatever it may be and whenever it strikes.'" …
- Sura Wood, San Francisco Arts Monthly, April 2005

San Francisco Cinematheque presents
We Cannot Exhibit It: The Videos of Pierre Yves Clouin

From bursts of perspective trickery to homoerotic celebrations of the male body and philosophical musings, the award-winning videos of Pierre Yves Clouin never cease to delight. His witty examinations of the quotidian elements of life bring transcendental revelations combined with laughter.

---

The first time I saw Pierre Yves Clouin's video work was in 1997 when I was the programming coordinator for MIXNYC: The New York Experimental Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. I was immediately seduced by his work because of how he used the specificity of the video medium: it's intimacy and framing that lends itself so well to voyeurism. He also displayed a playful sensitivity in his depiction of masculinity. But most of all, I was impressed by the strong brevity of his statements. When someone can convey a multitude of ideas that some people use the feature length format for, in a 2-minute long video - that's pretty amazing. Sitting in the dark and watching Cul en l'air and The Final Touch I had a moment with myself. The type of moment where my thoughts were provoked by the representation of his body, the identification I had as a spectator with this intimate moment and then the surprise by how I was pleasantly manipulated to believe I was seeing one thing, when I was in fact, looking askew.

This looking askew is something that traverses all of his work. You'll notice that his work can easily be divided: very short pieces about the body, the gaze and objectification and on the other hand, longer pieces about public vs. private. But over and over again Pierre Yves shows us that as viewers we have become lazy with the way we understand perspective in our spectatorship. Whether he is playing with the framing and eroticisation of the male body or showing us a succession of seemingly random images of the public with intimate voiceovers, Pierre Yves manipulates our viewing expectations.

— Maïa Cybelle Carpenter, San Francisco Cinematheque

Screening: Thursday, April 7, 7:30 pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Program length: approx. 70 minutes.
Works screening:

• Strong Enough (2001) (Best Musical and Audience Choice Awards, Thaw, 2002)
• The Bleating Calf (C'est le veau qui bêle) (1995) (Prix DRAC Auvergne, French Ministry of Culture, Vidéoformes, 1997)
• My Levitating Butt (Cul en l'air) (1997)
• Broom Ballet (2000) (Best New Media Work, Festival du Cinéma Francophone en Acadie 2000)
  — Cleaning was never so much fun! (M.C.C.)
• The Castle (Le Château) (2002)
• Rice Tea/Theory (Thé au riz) (2002)
  — Despite being mundane, the everyday has become quite the intellectual. (M.C.C.)
• Flying Sculpture (2000)
  — Your evening programming has been paused for some light aeronautic action sculpture. (M.C.C.)
• Honey Bunny (Mon lapin bleu) (1999)
• Front Room (1996) (Third Prize Experimental, New Arts Program Biennial Video Festival, Pennsylvania, 1998; Third Prize, Hamburg International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 1998)
• But Why are You So Wet? (Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé ?) (2003)
• I've Got Mouths All Over (J'ai des bouches partout) (1999)
  — Georges Bataille would agree - Pierre Yves Clouin has created a sublime orifice. (M.C.C.)
• Kangaroo (1998)
• The Leap into the Void (Le Saut dans le vide) (2004) PREMIERE
  — Is it suicidal or is it a suspension of belief? This little one takes on Yves Klein's infamous 'moment-state' from 1960. (M.C.C.)
• We Cannot Exhibit It (2002) (Certificate of Merit, 38th Chicago International Film Festival, 2002)
• The Final Touch (2000)
  — Remember what you learned in drawing class about perspective? (M.C.C.)
• Built to Survive (2001)
• Phone Home (2003)
  — My dear, I'm waiting for you. What on earth is taking you so long to get out? (M.C.C.)
• There (2001)

Co-presented by Frameline.

Frameline Presents

Videos by Pierre Yves Clouin

Experimental cinema enthusiasts, Francophiles, and anyone whose derrière occasionally defies gravity will delight in the defiantly idiosyncratic videos of Pierre Yves Clouin. This cheeky French artist, who charmed and alarmed audiences with Cul en l'air (My Levitating Butt) at the 1998 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, will make a rare local appearance on Thursday, April 7 at 7:30 pm at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, for a program organized by San Francisco Cinematheque and proudly co-presented by Frameline.

The program, intriguingly titled We Cannot Exhibit It: The Videos of Pierre Yves Clouin, will feature a bevy of short works ranging from homoerotic celebrations of the male body to philosophical musings on the prickly differences between private and public behavior. Program curator Maïa Cybelle Carpenter notes that Clouin's "witty examinations of the quotidian elements of life often bring trancendental revelations combined with laughter."

Heady stuff, yet also enormously entertaining; short works such as J'ai des bouches partout (I've Got Mouths All Over), Thé au riz (Rice Tea/Theory), Flying Sculpture and Strong Enough are playfully sexy as they toy with cinematic convention and challenge audience expectations. And then there's that famous levitating butt, which once again will do its magic. The screening will round out with U.S. premieres of Clouin's latest pieces.

Frameline and San Francisco Cinematheque have collaborated many times over the years. Now in its fifth decade as the nation's leading proponent and presenter of avant-garde film and video, Cinematheque shares Frameline's commitment to celebrating personal expression and artistic freedom through the exhibition of media-arts work that pushes beyond mainstream conventions. We Cannot Exhibit It: The Videos of Pierre Yves Clouin exemplifies the adventurous spirit of both organizations and is sure to be a memorable event.
— January 2005

"Reworked" selected for 19th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

See Tom of Finland's famous still drawings stir miraculously into life. — Brian Robinson, British Film Institute

"Reworked" (2004) will be premiering at the 19th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival to be held at the British Film Institute from March 30 to April 13. Featured in the festival's "Fetish" program "Reworked" will be showing before and after "That Man: Peter Berlin," directed by Jim Tushinski, in National Film Theatre 1, on Thursday, March 31 at 6:30 pm.
updated 28 March 2005

"The Bleating Calf" in Videoformes 20th Anniversary "Best Of"

"The Bleating Calf" (C'est le veau qui bêle, 1995, Prix DRAC Auvergnes 1997) will be presented in The Best of the Palmarès — a special program of award-winning works — at the 20th anniversary of Videoformes, Video & New Media in Contemporary Art to be held in Clermont-Ferrand, France, from March 14 to 19. The "Best Of" program will be screening on March 16 at 9:30 pm.
updated 8 March 2005

"Flying Sculpture" presented by San Francisco Cinematheque

"Flying Sculpture" (2000) was screened in the San Francisco Cinematheque's "Truths of Consequence" series at the California College of the Arts on Sunday, March 6. Curated by Cinematheque Artistic Director Irina Leimbacher, the program — entitled "A Sense of Site: From Calcutta to Afghanistan to Teheran" — featured work by Dominic Angerame, Alfred Guzzetti, and Mahnaz Afzali.
updated 8 March 2005

2004

"Honey Bunny" and Clouin's beetle in Paris gay film festival

"Honey Bunny" (Mon Lapin bleu, 1999, photo left) and "Strong Enough" (2001) were presented in Transpédégouines is Back at the 10e Festival de Films Gays et Lesbiens de Paris held at the Forum des Images in Paris, November 19 to 28.
Transpédégouines is Back, which screened on November 26, was curated by Philippe Donadini and Florence Fradelizi, and featured work by Pascal Lièvre, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Joe Sola, and others.
updated 14 February 2005

"But Why are You so Wet?" featured at Mix Brasil

"But Why are You so Wet?" (Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?, 2003) will be featured at Mix Brasil 2004, the 12th Cinema and Video Festival of Sexual Diversity, screening in São Paulo (November 11 to 21), Rio de Janeiro (November 16 to 26), and Brasilia (December 1 to 12).
posted 29 October 2004

"The Bleating Calf" in Rennes

"The Bleating Calf" (1995) was featured in the screening series Tambour Electronique, in an October 12 program entitledAutoportraits, organized by La station Arts Electroniques at the University of Rennes, France.
posted 25 February 2006

"Castle" in Bogota

"The Castle" (Le Château, 2002) was presented by Heure Exquise! during the second ARTRONICA Muestra Internacional de Artes Electrónicas in Bogota, Colombia.
Organized by the Cultural Office of the French Embassy, the festival ran from September 30 to October 10.
updated 29 October 2004

"But Why Are You So Wet?" at Cinematexas International Short Film Festival

"But Why are You so Wet?" (Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?, 2003, photo) screened in the International Competition at the ninth edition of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, in Austin, Texas, September 22 to 26.
Featured in the international competition program 6 entitled All About My Other, "But Why are You so Wet?" screened on September 23 and 26.
updated 29 October 2004

But Why Are You So Wet?

Clouin takes us on a tour of mundane city spaces and peeks his camera around corners, under beds, and out of windows to disclose what was there all along. It's shaky, fuzzy, and off to the side. Keep it safe in your peripheral vision. Or turn your head and see the show full-frontal.
- Jason Cortlund, Cinematexas © 2004

"Four Legs vs. More Legs," Magic Lantern, Providence, Rhode Island

"Strong Enough" (2001) screened in "The Animal Show, Part 2: Four Legs vs. More Legs" on July 23, the fourth event in the Magic Lantern series curated by Ben Russell and Carrie Collier at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, Rhode Island. The program also included works by Sam Easterson, Jennifer Reeder, Julie Murray, Ben Coonley, Naomi Uman, Peter Glantz, Robert Todd, and Izabella Pruska Oldenhof.

"Paradise Now," Festa dell'Unità, Rome

Eight works by Clouin, including "Honey Bunny" (Mon Lapin Bleu, 1999), screened June 28 during Gay Pride celebrations at the Festa dell'Unità in Rome (Mercati Generali, via Ostiense), Italy, in a program entitled "Paradise Now" curated by Piero Pala.

"Shot in the Back," Gay Pride edition, Paris

"Reworked", Clouin's new experimental animation using images by Tom of Finland, was previewed at the Shot in the Back "queer contemporary art café" on Wednesday, June 23, at Le Twins (Paris) in a pre-Gay Pride program curated by Florence Fradelizi, Tom de Pekin, and Philippe Donadini. The evening featured a queer short by François Marache, a film on the Conservatoire des Archives et des Mémoires Homosexuelles de l'Académie Gay & Lesbienne and one by the Groupe Activiste Trans along with performances by Pascal Lièvre, Tsuneko Taniuchi and Teen Machine.

"Happy Revolution" in Rio
Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro

"Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02) screened throughout the month of June at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a program entitled "Happy Revolution" featuring video work by French-based contemporary artists. The program, curated by Philippe Donadini, also features videos by Alain Bernardini, Hsia-Fei Chang, Tom de Pekin, Ninar Esber, Pascal Lièvre, Anna Margarita Albelo, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Tsuneko Taniuchi, Georges Tony Stoll and Laurent Vicente.
updated 9 August 2004

"Borderline," Paris

"Brad" (2004, photo) premiered in the monthly screening series "Borderline, Café artistique" at Le Twins in Paris on Thursday, April 1. Other works by Clouin, as well as works by Izdatso, Laurent Vicente, Laurent Serin, Eric Chaloupy, Anna la Chocha, Dana Wyse, Tom de Pékin & Philippe Donadini also screened in the program curated by Philippe Donadini.

"Shot in the Back," Paris

Five of Clouin's videos were featured in "Shot in the Back," an evening of contemporary queer art at Le Twins in Paris on March 17. "Kangaroo" (1998), "The Little Big" (1999, Official Selection Sundance 2001), "Honey Bunny" (1999), "Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02), and "Le Château" (The Castle, 2002) were screened in the program curated by Philippe Donadini, which also included work by Texas Tomboy, Flaming Pussy, Laurence Chanfreau, Le Tigre et Julien Serve.

Award-winning "We Cannot Exhibit It" screens at Nashville Film Festival

"We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002, Certificate of Merit 38th Chicago International Film Festival) screened at the Nashville Film Festival, held in Nashville, Tennessee, April 26 to May 2. "We Cannot Exhibit It" was featured in the "Experimental Means" program, that screened May 1.
updated 28 May 2004

"Experimental Means"

A selection of the year's best experimental film and video, including works by acclaimed artists Chel White, Louise Bourque, Pierre Yves Clouin, and others.
- Dana Kopp Franklin, "Movie City USA: Nashville Film Festival 2004 Kicks Off," The Nashville Rage, 2004

"But Why Are You So Wet?" and "We Cannot Exhibit It" screen at Athens International Film & Video Festival

"But Why are You so Wet?" (Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?, 2003) and "We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002, Certificate of Merit 38th Chicago International Film Festival, photo) screened in the program "ART" at the Athens International Film & Video Festival on April 26 at the Athena Cinema. "ART," an Athens competition show, featured work by Paul Bush, Bill Brand, George Kuchar, Les Leveque, Jay Rosenblatt, and others. The festival ran from April 23 to 29.
updated 28 May 2004

"Phone Home" premiers at 18th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, British Film Institute

"Phone Home" (2003) premiered at the 18th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, held at the British Film Institute - National Film Theatre in London, from 24 March to April 7. "Phone Home" was featured in the program "Art is a Tart", screening March 28, that included other experimental queer works such as "Fluff" by Todd Verow, "Jouissance" by Larry Shea, and "Grotesque" by Wrick Mead.
updated 10 April 2004

"Phone Home"

Here's yet another incomprehensible kaleidoscope from Clouin, with seemingly disparate images and sound that work together into something rather intriguing this time around! The main image is of a window cleaner, while the sound is a collection of conversation, radio and television snippets, all of which seem to be double entendres. Besides the glass-cleaner, images tend to be men running, frolicking, whatever. Fascinating but completely incomprehensible.
- Rich Cline, "Short films from the British Film Institute's 18th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival March-April 2004," Shadows on the Wall, © 2004

Exhibition "Corps/Intime" in Pau

Organized by Le Parvis Centre d'art contemporain in Tarbes, France, and featuring work by Annick Bouleau, Pierre Yves Clouin, Arfinnu R. Einarsson, Mounir Fatmi, Claudette Lemay, Véronique Mouysset, Sébastien Pesot, Joan Pueyo,Marie-Laure Wiel, and others, the exhibition "Corps/Intime" was held at Vidéo.K 01 in Pau, France, from 5 February to 20 March 2004. Le Parvis acquired Clouin's "The Bleating Calf" for its permanent collection on this occasion.
posted 5 December 2006

2003

Microwave International Media Art Festival 03

"Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02) was screened at the Microwave International Media Art Festival 03 held in Hong Kong, October 29 - November 30. Curated by Ip Yuk Yiu, the festival's international video program screened at the Hong Kong Space Museum November 7-9; "Strong Enough" was featured in the "Audiovision" program.

Vinokino

"Lunch" (2002) was presented at the Vinokino Lesbo- ja Homoelukuvan Festivaali lesbian and gay film festival held in Turku, Finland, November 6-11. "Lunch" was screened in the program "Whole Meal" on November 9.

"But Why Are You So Wet?" premiers
at MIX 17, Anthology Film Archives

"But Why Are You So Wet?" (Mais pourquoi t'es tout mouillé?, 2003, photos) premiered at MIX 17, held at Anthology Film Archves, in New York City, New York, from November 19-23. The award-winning "We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002) also screened in the festival, themed "Resistance is Fertile."

But Why Are You So Wet?

...looks closely at the things you see everyday.
- James Carsey, "Time to Mix," Gay City News, 2003

updated 24 December 2003

"Pneumatic Flight" in Body on Screen
Melbourne International Festival of the Arts

"Pneumatic Flight" (1999) was presented in the "Body on Screen" film series at the 2003 Melbourne International Arts Festival, October 9-25. "Body on Screen" included 84 films from 14 countries. Series producer and curator Erin Brannigan says, "These films explore the radical possibilities of corporeal performance beyond narrative and dialogue." "Pneumatic Flight" screened in the "Moving Shorts" program at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on October 15 and 22.
updated 8 December 2003

Cinematexas International Short Film Festival 8

"We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002, Certificate of Merit, 38th Chicago International Film Festival Experimental Shorts Competition) was screened at Cinematexas 8, held in Austin, Texas, Sepember 16-21. "We Cannot Exhibit It" was featured in the International Competition program Video Art BBQ: BLOW UP, and screened September 18.

We Cannot Exhibit It

Clouin's fairytale fantasy that fuses the torso of a Russian powerlifter to a silent film adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
"It is indecent!"
- Jason Cortlund, Cinematexas © 2003

Independent Exposure, Edition Française 2003

In July, "Front Room" (1996) was presented in the Microcinema International "Independent Exposure" screening series at The Modern Zoo, at the Portland Center for the Advancement of Culture in Portland, Oregon, and at the 111 Minna Gallery, in San Francisco, California, USA.

Vue sur court

Five of Clouin's videos were presented at the Vue sur court short film festival in La Rochelle, France, June 28 - July 5. "Les deux mains sur la tête" (1997), "Lube" (1997), "Workman" (1998), "Kangaroo" (1998), and "Honey Bunny" (1999) were screened June 29.

"We Cannot Exhibit It" selected
for IFP Los Angeles Film Festival

"We Cannot Exhibit It" was selected for the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival, June 11-21. "We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002, Certificate of Merit, 38th Chicago International Film Festival Experimental Shorts Competition) screened at the festival on June 15, and 17, in Shorts Program 4.
Download Clouin's IFP Los Angeles Film Festival press kit in PDF (requires Acrobat Reader 4, available free here).
updated 28 June 2003

"Thé au riz" and "Strong Enough" screen
at World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam

"Thé au riz" (2002, photo) and "Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02) screened at the 20th World Wide Video Festival, held at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, May 8-25. Clouin's videos screened in the Shorts I program May 17, 18 and 25.

Thé au riz

"You see stuff and, at the same time, hear other stuff. For example, you see a guy's butt in the street and you hear someone talking about his taxes. Totally unrelated," ponders the voice-over in Thé au Riz. Pierre Yves Clouin juxtaposes a sound recording of an intimate conversation in bed with his lover with lengthy images of public spaces — a shopping mall, a café, a street in New York City. The conversation meanders along, as a wide view of a landscape filmed through an airplane window passes by. The altitude of the plane reduces rivers and mountains to mere cracks and crevices. All sense of proportion is lost. The scene changes, so does the conversation.

- What do you mean, the bar that's higher than you?
- What?
- You said: on the bar, which is higher than you.
- Oh yeah, when you're sitting on the bed here the bar over there is higher than me.

There doesn't appear to be any sense of logic or direction in this conversation, nor do the changing scenes seem in any way related to each other. It appears to be just pillow talk accompanied by random images shot with a handycam. The man continues to speak in a soft voice about some friends, the places in Paris they visited, which route they took to get there, and where they had lunch. We see a kid wearing an Adidas jacket waiting for his dad who's using a public phone in some mall while a voice-over discusses a female duck and her ducklings. Totally unrelated. When he asks his friend about the leftover pasta we see the image of someone reading a paper in an outdoor café. What remains however throughout the entire fifteen minutes of the video is the strong sense of intimacy. Clouin immerses you in a dream-like state where the apparent absence of logic is not questioned.
Thé au Riz is a thought-provoking and challenging work that raises a number of questions about the blurring of the boundaries between public and private space, in particular about the relationship between the individual and the media, which are increasingly invading people's private lives, just like we see more and more of people's private lives reflected in the media.
- Remco Vlaanderen, 20th World Wide Video Festival © 2003

updated 27 May 2003

13. Internationales Bochumer Videofestival

"Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02) screened at the 13th Internationales Bochumer Videofestival in Bochum, Germany, May 15-17.

13th Inside Out

"A Perfect Day" (2002) screened at the 13th Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, held in Toronto, Canada, May 15-25.

"A Thinly Veiled Threat"

"Put Your Hands On Your Head" (Les Deux mains sur la tête, 1997) was screened at SMART Cinema, at the SMART Project Space in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on May 11 and 14, in "Undermining the Overview," part three of the center's video series "A Thinly Veiled Threat."

"Strong Enough" broadcast
on "Vanavond" VPRO Television, Holland

"Strong Enough" (2001, Best Musical & Audience Choice awards at Thaw 02) headed a line-up of selected works from the 20th World Wide Video Festival broadcast on the program "Vanavond," on VPRO Television, Holland, May 9. The five-piece program was followed by another WWVF "Vanavond" special on May 16.

Strong Enough

I don't need your sympathy
There's nothing you can say or do for me…
Cher in Strong Enough
Out of all the bug videos that were sent in to the World Wide Video Festival this year Pierre Yves Clouin's Strong Enough made a lasting impression. The short clip only lasts one-and-a-half minute and is arguably the world's shortest and sweetest musical ever made. The leading lady is a June Bug lying upside-down on its back, struggling in a desperate attempt to get back up on its feet again. It is remarkable how Clouin manages to transform such a simple everyday life scene into a larger-than-life event by effectively utilizing the essence of comedy: the careful orchestration of tension and relief. The viewer is parachuted into a top dramatic moment. You immediately identify and sympathize with the struggling bug. Then Clouin injects a bit of humour to relieve the heavy tension of this tragic event: the first two verses of Cher's song Strong Enough kick in. Relief. Cher is basically saying that you can be strong and rule your life and make the choices you want to make. Then Cher stops… We wait for the climax. But there is no climax, there is no turning point in the plot.
- Remco Vlaanderen, 20th World Wide Video Festival © 2003

updated 27 May 2003

"Videomotion" at Museum Africa
Playtime Festival, Newtown, South Africa

Clouin's work was featured in a "Videomotion" program presented by Heure Exquise and Le Mas at Museum Africa during the Playtime Festival in Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa. Sponsored by the French Institute of South Africa and the National Arts Council of South Africa, the multidisciplinary festival (video art, film, performance, visual arts, and poetry) ran from April 30 to May 4.
posted 10 July 2003

Thaw '03

"We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002, Certificate of Merit, 38th Chicago International Film Festival Experimental Shorts Competition) and "A Perfect Day" (2002) were presented at Thaw '03, held at the Institute for Cinema and Culture, Iowa City, Iowa, from April 10 to 12.

"Lunch," "Model," and "There" screened
at 17th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

"Lunch" (2002, photo), "Model" (2001) and "There" (2001), were screened at the 17th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, organized by the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre, April 2-16. "Lunch" screened in the program Eat Me, April 12 and 15. "Model" and "There" were featured in Brief Encounters, April 12 and 14.

There

This single take seems utterly random, like most of Clouin's films, but it has a serious sting in its tale as it tracks up an evening street in Paris, where the pavement is full of cafe tables and boistrous people. Then at the end we stop, the sound fades, and we retrace our steps to where we might have seen something rather shocking. The film catches you off guard with its simple yet pointed way of expressing something very important.
- Rich Cline, "Three by Pierre Yves Clouin," © 2003

updated 1 September 2003

"We Cannot Exhibit It" at Musée d'Art Moderne Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Asq
Carte blanche à Heure Exquise!

"We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002) was on view at the Musée d'Art Moderne Lille Métropole in Villeneuve d'Asq, France, from February 22 to 28.
The show was part of a programming series curated by Heure Exquise! to accompany a group of exhibitions entitled Phenomènes de croissance (Growth Phenomena) at the museum from February 8 to March 26.
The other videos in this carte blanche were: "Festin" by Mounir Fatmi, "Le carnet" by Jean-Louis Accettone, "Cérémonie 01" followed by "La tempête" by Pierre Lobstein, "Cows" by Gabriela Golder, and "Marocaine à deux dimensions" by Brahim Bachiri.
For further information contact the museum or Heure Exquise!
updated 29 March 2003

Mardi Gras Film Festival 2003

"Shadow Box" screened on February 16 and 24 in the program "Fun in Boys' Shorts" at the 2003 Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.

2002

"NonStopMedia" at PRO ARTE Institute
St. Petersburg, Russia

Clouin's work was featured in two programs in "NonStopMedia," a video and media art series coordinated by Svetlana Ostrova at PRO ARTE Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. "Performance and Video in Contemporary Art" (November) and "Video and Artistic Actionism" (December) were curated by Olga Shishko of Moscow's MediaArtLab Center of Arts and Culture. The programs included videos by Vitto Acconci, Bruce Nauman, Hartmut Jahn, Isabel Martin, Pia Vergius, the Blue Noses (Sinie Nosy) group, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Joseph Rotakovski, Platon Infante, Alexei Isaev, Oleg Mavromatti, Vyacheslav Mizin, Svetlana Baskova, Konstantin Skotnikov, and others.
updated 27 December 2002

16th MIX NYC

"Thé au riz" (2002, photo right) and "Le Château" (2002) premiered at the 16th MIX NYC festival, Nov. 20-24, at Anthology Film Archives.
"Strong Enough" (2001) also screened at the the festival.

Le Château

Also part of the [16th Mix NYC] Opening Night collection is Pierre Yves Clouin's atmospheric Le Château (The Castle). Blair Witch meets gay bathhouse as a hand-held camera puts the viewer inside a space, presumably a castle, where shirtless men, seen from a distance, walk around in search of… What? Each other? A way out? It's homoerotic, gripping and ethereal.
- Erik Piepenburg, "Good, Bad, and Ugly," © 2002

From Mix with Love

"A Perfect Day" (2002) was screened in a sneak preview program of shorts—entitled From Mix With Love: Speculation, Reverie & Utopia—from the 16th MIX NYC, at Ocularis, Galapagos Art and Performance Space, Brooklyn, on Sunday, Nov. 17.
With work by Kerstin Cmelka, Michael Barry, Ethan Eunson-Conn, Kim Wyns, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Matthew Stenerson, Kasumi, Simone Moir & Chantal Rousseau, Joshua Thorson and Meredith Holch.

14th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival

"Strong Enough" (2001) was selected for the 14th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival in Chicago, at Chicago Filmmakers, Nov. 15-17.

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo

Astria Suparak's new program of video art entitled Adolescent Boys, And Living Rooms that features Clouin's "The Little Big" (1999, Official Selection Sundance 2001), was curated for Mexico City's Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo.
She presented the program—which includes work by Animal Charm, Messieurs Delmotte, Jim Finn, Harrell Fletcher and Jon Rubin with Anthony Powers, Miranda July, Ted Passon, Jennifer Reeder, and Jon Leone—on Nov. 15, at the museum as part of its "Panorámica" video initiative.

43rd International Thessaloniki Film Festival

"My Levitating Butt" (1997) was screened at the 43rd International Thessaloniki Film Festival (Nov. 8-16, Thessaloniki, Greece), in Orgasmic Cinema, a series of special programs presented by Athina Rachel Tsangari and Spencer Parsons of Cinematexas.

"We Cannot Exhibit It" premiers
in Chicago experimental shorts competition,
awarded Certificate of Merit

"We Cannot Exhibit It" (2002) premiered at the 38th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, where it was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the festival's Experimental Shorts Competition. "We Cannot Exhibit It" was featured in the Offbeat Shorts program; the festival ran from October 4 to 18, 2002.
updated 30 October 2002

13th Hamburg International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

"Strong Enough" (2001) was presented at the 13th Hamburg International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, October 15 to 20.

Glaz'art, Paris

A cycle of Clouin's videos—"Workman" (1998), "Kangaroo" (1998), and "The Little Big" (1999)—were featured in the October 9 opening of Xtensions ou le sampling corporel, an exhibition on view October 2-29 at Paris's Glaz'art as a prelude to the city's lesbian and gay film festival. "Insert" (2000) also screened nightly during the exhibition.

6th Unimovie

"Panda Man" (2001) and "Tutu et chapeau pointu" (2001), premiered in the 6th Unimovie festival, themed the "Moving Image Container," in Pescara, Italy, October 2-6. "There (2001) also screened in the festival's International Exhibition of New Images.

7th Cinematexas International Short Film Festival

"A Perfect Day" (2002) screened in its world premiere at the 7th Cinematexas International Short Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in a special program on September 21. "Strong Enough" (2001) also screened at the festival in the International Competition program 1 "Animal Show" on September 19 and 22. The festival ran from September 17 to 22.

8th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Festival

Screened at the 8th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Festival, July 11-22: "Model" (2001), "Built to Survive" (2001), "Shadow Box" (2000), "The Final Touch" (2000), and "Honey Bunny" (1999).

ImageOut Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

You'll believe a butt can fly...
"My Levitating Butt" (Cul en l'air) (1997) screened in the Boys Shorts program in the 2002 Tenth Anniversary Series at the ImageOut Festival in Rochester, New York, August 8.

Outfest 2002

"Model" (2001) was screened in the Outfest 2002 Platinum Shorts program on July 16 at The Director's Guild of America Theater, Los Angeles. The festival ran from July 11-22.

MIX Festival Highlights in Toronto

"Flying Sculpture" (2000) was included in a program of eleven short films and videos selected as highlights from the 2001 MIX: New York City Lesbian/Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival that screened on June 28, in Toronto. Other works featured were "G-Sprout!" by Mirha-Soleil Ross, "My Life In Dance" by Roy Mitchell, "Music Might Have Deceived Us" by Chris Chong, "Porno-Tubbies" by Ian Jarvis, "Eels" by Patty Chang, "Mammoth" by Barbara Malaran, "K.I.P." by Nguyen Tan Hoang, "I Am…" by Jeanine Olson, "En La Madrugada" by Aurora Guerrero, and "Minnesota Mean" by Dean Otto & Marjie Thieman. The screening was co-sponsored by The Images Festival of Independent Film & Video and Pleasure Dome.

26th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

"Shadow Box" (2000) was screened at the Herbst Theatre on June 14, and at the Castro Theatre June 20, during the 26th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, June 13-30.

2nd Annual Flaming Film Festival

Screened at the 2nd Annual Flaming Film Festival, presented by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 1-6: "Honey Bunny" (1999), "The Final Touch" (2000), "Broom Ballet" (2000), "Shadow Box" (2000) and "There" (2001).

12. Internationales Bochumer Videofestival

"Built to Survive" (2001) was screened in the 12th Internationales Bochumer Videofestival in Bochum, Germany, on April 27. The festival ran April 25-27.

16th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

"Honey Bunny" (1999) and "The Final Touch" (2000) were screened April 5 at the National Film Theatre, in the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The festival ran April 3-17 and was organized by the British Film Institute.

"Strong Enough" garners two prizes at Thaw
Best Musical and Audience Choice Award

"Strong Enough" (2001, left) won the prize for Best Musical (jury: Ximena Cuevas, Greta Snider, Stephanie Gray) and an Audience Choice Award in its premier screening at Thaw02, Festival of Film, Video and Digital Media. Organized by the University of Iowa's Institute for Cinema & Culture in Iowa City, Iowa, the festival ran from April 11-13, 2002. "Scene of the Crime" (2001) also premiered at the festival.

Anecdotal Evidence

[…] This year's Thaw had humor and style […] My first prize for a video with intelligence, pathos, and wit goes to Strong Enough, by Pierre Yves Clouin. The video consists of one full minute of a beetle of some sort, perhaps what Midwesterners call a June Bug, struggling to right itself. It is an accident of these creatures' physiognomy that once flipped onto their large backs, it is very hard for them to get enough leverage with their tiny legs to flip back over. You've all seen it. But did you really look?
Strong Enough affords the pleasure of detail and the excitement of rediscovery: sitting silently in the dark with this enormous moving image as the only distraction, the audience was forced to observe tiny movements of the legs, to hope anxiously for a resolution which of course never comes. It wasn't long before certain members of the audience started to laugh, because it's funny, somehow, sitting there silently rooting for this bug. And, unlike many of the filmmakers who used their space for pompous intellectual explications of work that should have been self-explanatory, Clouin used his program blurb perfectly. He wrote: "I don't need your sympathy." Even without this suggestive comment, we would have laughed because the beetle clearly didn't care if we were watching, wasn't capable of playing it for the camera (God forbid). One could imagine a cartoon version of the same idea done on Sesame Street, but the real "face" of the beetle, which is to say its animal impassivity, lent its actions a certain dignity. It was fantastic: short, simple, and brilliant. […]
- Margaret Schwartz, PopMatters.com © 2002

updated 27 October 2002

Melbourne Queer Film Festival

"Honey Bunny" (1999) and "The Little Big" (1999) were screened in the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, which ran from March 14-24.

"CHEAP"

"Cul en l'air" (My Levitating Butt, 1997) was screened in the inaugural program of an eclectic new arts series entitled "Cheap" at Berlin's Podewil Center for the Contemporary Arts on March 7, 2002. Curated by Podewil 2002 Artist-in-Residence Marc Siegel, Susanne Sachße, and Daniel Hendrickson, the program featured performance, dance music, film and video. Other participants included Antonia Baehr, William Wheeler, Tscheap Tschechow, Alicja Zebrowska, George Kuchar, William Hein, DJ Nancy, Nina Thorwart, and Annette Frick.

"Tunnel of Love"
Valentine's Day in S.F.

"sexiness which is everything but straight… lesbian, gay, transgendered, transsexual, bisexual, intersex, hermaphrodite, s/m, and of course… best of all… self love. happy st. valentines day!"
- Maïa Cybelle Carpenter

"My Hands Are Shaking" (2001) and "Honey Bunny" (1999) were screened February 14, in San Francisco, in a special St. Valentine's Day event entitled "Tunnel of Love" curated by Maïa Cybelle Carpenter. The program included works by Nguyen Tan Hoang, Mirha Soleil Ross, Peggy Ahwesh, Tejal Shah & Anuj Vaidya, Cindy Birkhead, Teri Rice, Amber Horning & Kat Pankam, Yoshie Suzuki, Maïa Cybelle Carpenter, Tobaron Waxman, Liz Miller, Maria Beatty, with 16mm surgery films supplied by Craig Balwin and Stephen Parr of Oddball Productions.

Stuttgart Filmwinter

"Flying Sculpture" (2000) was presented in the 15th Stuttgart Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media, held at the Stuttgart Filmhaus and other venues, January 10-20.

"Dirges and Sturgeons" spring 2003 tour
Sometimes, danger and small warm things

After premiering at New York's Anthology Film Archives in October 2001 and touring in 2002, "Dirges and Sturgeons" was back on the road in the spring. Curated for Anthology by Astria Suparak, the program includes work by Animal Charm, Lawrence Elbert, Bjorn Melhus, Pierre Yves Clouin, Jacqueline Goss, Miranda July, Seth Price, and others.

"The Little Big" (photo), selected for Sundance 2001, is featured in the show. The spring 2003 included the following screenings:

• March 12 - San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
• March 24 - University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• March 25 - Available Light at Club SAW, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• March 27 - Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Dirges and Sturgeons

Curator Astria Suparak describes these videos as presenting futuristic or high-tech ideas "in a lo-fi way," and the best entries are both simple and conceptually subtle in their approaches to gender. Pierre Yves Clouin continues to explore the male body in The Little Big (1999), a single take in which a crack that appears to be buttocks in shadow is revealed to be something more erotic. In Lawrence Elbert's Whitney: Mama's Little Baby (2000) a drag queen drinks from a bottle in a paper bag and delivers a solipsistic and rather pathetic monologue to the camera. The theme of self-entrapment is echoed in The Magic Glass (1991), as video maker Bjorn Melhus speaks to his feminized image on a monitor while shaving himself.
On the same program, which runs about 58 minutes: work by Jacqueline Goss, Miranda July, Seth Price, and Animal Charm.
- Fred Camper, Chicago Reader Online © 2002

For complete information on the tour, the program, and the press it has received, see astriasuparak.com. For booking, e-mail Astria Suparak.

"Dirges and Sturgeons" spring 2002 tour

• March 22 - Artists' Television Access, San Francisco CA
• March 23 - Santa Barbara Community College CA
• March 24 - C-Level, Los Angeles CA
• March 27 - Pitzer College Cinematheque, Claremont CA
• March 28 - "Broken Music" at Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles CA
• April 5 - Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis MN
• April 9 - Bamboo Theater Presents, Milwaukee WI
• April 11 - Madison's Starlight Cinema, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI
• April 15 - Discount Cinema at The Empty Bottle, Chicago IL
• April 16 - Illinois State University Cinema Society, Bloomington-Normal IL
• May 7 - Massachusetts College of Art, Boston MA

"Dirges and Sturgeons" fall 2002 tour

• Sept. 26 - 3 Billion Art Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
• Sept. 28 - Lee Hardware Gallery, Shreveport, LA
• Sept. 30 - Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
• Oct. 4 - Basement Films, Albuquerque, NM
• Oct. 10 - Modified Arts, Phoenix, AZ
• Oct. 11 - The Earwig Factory, Bisbee, AZ
• Oct. 29 - Harvard University, Cambridge, MS, with Elizabeth Subrin (not open to the public)
• Oct. 30 - Massachusetts Art Film Society, Boston, MS
• Oct. 31 - Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Nov. 1 - Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT
• Dec. 3 - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

updated 29 March 2003

2001

The 4th NAP Biennial Video Festival tour
"the cream of the art form"

"Where does video stand today as a fine art? Every two years the New Arts Program brings you an update of what artists around the world are doing outside commercial video life." - NAP

The 2001 "cream of the art form," selected by NAP jurors Mary Lucier, Ann Borin, and Ann-Sargent Wooster, included Pierre Yves Clouin's "Shadow Box" (2000, photo), as well as works by Van McElwee, Marie-France Giraudon & Emmanuel Avenel, Fred Levy, Dennis Summers, Thomas Fleisch, Takahik Iimura, Kiriko Shirobayashi, Gene Gort, and Paul Kaup. After opening at the NAP Exhibition Space in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, September 7 to October 27, 2001, the show toured the northeastern United States.

• MCS Gallery, Arts Resource Center, Easton, PA, Sept. 19 - Oct. 28, 2001
• Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE, Nov. 2, 2001
• Hunterdown Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ, Nov. 11, 2001 - Jan. 6, 2002
• Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, Dec. 11 - Jan. 13, 2002
• Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 22 - March 3, 2002
• Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City, NY, March 20 - April 20, 2002
• Marywood University Art Galleries, Scranton, PA, March 18 - April 28, 2002
• Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA, May 15 - July 14, 2002

For further information, contact NAP by e-mail.
updated 27 August 2002

NEW YORK TIMES

ART REVIEW: Cinema à la Warhol, With Cowboys, Stillness and Glamour

New Arts Program

For a sense of what film and video artists outside New York are up to, drop by the Fourth New Arts Program Biennial Video Festival 2001, a traveling juried show at Paula Cooper making its second last stop. It's a mixed bag, but the two top-prize pieces are beauties: "Procession" by Van McElwee, an artist from St. Louis, is a slice of dust-to-dust Americana, as small-town parade bands drift across the screen and dissolve into air; "Trans(e) Bleu," by the Montreal team of Emmanuel Avenel and Marie-France Giraudon, is stream-of-consciousness meditation on the idea of "far north." Pierre Yves Clouin's jolting little "Shadow Box" is also worth sticking around for.

You might want to wrap up a Chelsea visit with two further film stops: one short, "The Paradise Institute" by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at Luhring Augustine, and one long, Bruce Nauman's "Mapping My Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage)" at Dia, a Warholian five hours. Or maybe move on to attractions elsewhere.
- Holland Cotter, New York Times, April 5, 2002

Naked Eye

French video artist Pierre-Yves Clouin makes love to the camera

"Timidity is not an issue," says video artist Pierre-Yves Clouin. Part exhibitionist, part auteur, Clouin is not afraid to show a little skin in his little videos (none are more than 5 minutes long). And he's not afraid to share an opinion either: "Full-frontal nudity is curiously flat."
As both director and star of his growing body of work, Clouin focuses his lens on parts of the male body that don't often make gay top-ten lists, like armpits and shoulders, the small of the back and the top of the head. Clouin works like a video Venus Flytrap, seducing audiences with intimate close-ups of curves and orifices on his own well-sculpted body. Just when you think you recognize what's on-screen, the body unfolds and you realize you just got turned on by shoulder cleavage (The Little Big (2000 [sic]) or by a particularly sexy earlobe (I've Got Mouths All Over, 1999).
Earlier this year he screened a tape at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. This fall he has a few venues lined up including the MIX Festival in Manhattan, where Clouin once premiered The Bleating Calf and caused a sensation with animal rights activists until it was explained that what looked like a lamb about to be slaughtered was actually Clouin himself, naked and moaning.
Clouin travels quite a bit these days, leaving his boyfriend at home in Paris. Exquisitely formed and clearly at ease with exposing himself to the critical masses, Clouin has some sexy advice for the body-obsessed among us: "Accept pleasure whatever it may be and whenever it strikes."
- Rajendra Roy, Empire, © Fall 2001

Rajendra Roy is former manager of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Film and Media Arts Program and is currently artistic director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. In July 2007 he joins New York's Museum of Modern Art as chief curator of the film department.
updated 2 June 2007

9th Biennial of Moving Images
Center for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais Genève

"Flying Sculpture" (2000, photo) screened in the international competition at the 9th Biennial of Moving Images, organized by the Center for Contemporary Images Saint-Gervais Genève, in Geneva, Switzerland, November 2-10. In its ninth edition, the film and video competition showcased 56 works from 46 countries.
updated 26 November 2001

"Short, Quiet and Disturbing: On Recent Video Works by Pierre Yves Clouin"
by Ger Zielinski

The spring 2001 issue of TRADE Quarterly, titled "Perverts …are people too," includes a review of Pierre Yves Clouin's recent work by Ger Zielinski, lecturer at the School of Images Arts, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, and critic for Parachute and Lola. E-mail TRADE for information.
Following this publication, Ger Zielinski presented a paper entitled "Short, Quiet and Disturbing: On the Recent Work of Pierre Yves Clouin and Steve Reinke," accompanied by clips from works by both artists, at the 2001 Conference of the Film Studies Association of Canada on May 26, at the Université Laval, in Ste-Foy, Quebec.
updated 13 July 2001