Art as Daily Research
This documentary delves into the work of Bernard Villers, a Belgian painter, screen printer, and publisher. Villers engages the viewer by subverting expectations, presenting works stripped of excess, where simplicity takes center stage. As he puts it, “I aim to be labor-saving: to do as little as possible while achieving the maximum with the least.” His use of pure colors and geometric shapes invites contemplation on materials, media, double-sidedness, shadows, and transparency. In addition to his paintings and installations, Villers has produced and published over 150 books, brochures, and booklets. The film follows the artist in his Brussels workshop and at various exhibitions, offering an intimate glimpse into his creative process and artistic philosophy.
Understanding Art in Politic Context
“Aux Arts Etc.” is a documentary film that explores a public art project involving sixteen artists, each invited to create a work in response to the door of a town hall or its immediate surroundings. From May to December 2010, these installations encouraged passers-by to view these civic spaces in a new light, highlighting their role as symbols of local power and integral elements of democratic society. The event was curated by Jacques Charlier. The sixteen artists were: Toma Muteba Luntumbue in Ans; Captain Lonchamps in Engis; Nicolas Kozakis in Eupen; Marie Zolamian in Flémalle; Werner Moron in Herstal; Sylvie Canonne in Huy; Jacques Charlier in Liège; Manuel Alves Pereira in Malmedy; Pol Pierart in Marchin; Nicolas Bomal in Seraing; Ronald Dagonnier in Soumagne; Sophie Langohr in Spa; Alain De Clerck in Verviers; Sylvie Macias Diaz in Visé; Emilio López Menchero in Waremme; Antoine Van Impe in Welkenraedt.
Cinema as dialogue. Our documentaries explore the role of individuals within society, driven by authentic conversations that seek to deeply understand the people we encounter. We examine how individuals are rooted in their environments and how various structures influence their actions. We champion imaginative films that inspire us to engage more fully with the world around us.
A meditation on a field
Le Champ is a found-footage short film built from Prelinger Archive footage and a text by John Berger, a meditation on a field, a meadow edged with trees, that slowly reveals itself as an essay on the act of looking. Through cross-cutting between American industrial and agricultural imagery from the 1950s and 60s and Berger’s quietly radical prose, the film asks what it means to truly see: in a culture conditioned to read every element as a commodity, the field is no longer a field, the cow no longer a cow. Selected for the Labo Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2011, the film is an exercise in appropriation and reframing, borrowing the images of one world to question the assumptions of another.