“The artist, in his movement towards the ideal, upsets the stability of any one society. Society aspires to achieve stability; the artist aims for infinity. That is the artist’s responsibility and the spiritual sacrifice demanded of him.” Rui Chafes, O Perfume das Buganvílias, 2012 (19).
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In a hidden workshop, surrounded by water and vegetation, a group of craftspeople live together with the statues they restore, silent spectators of a discreet battle against the inclemency of time and oblivion.
Guido Magnone - The Artist (1997)
Guido Magnone designs cardboard boxes by hand for his parents' small business. A painter friend loves his brushwork and pushes him to attend the Beaux Arts. He takes an external competition, wins it, befriends the sculptors César and Féraud, surrealists, a handful of bohemians. He then discovered the mountain and quickly became one of the best climbers of his generation. He made prestigious conquests such as the west face of the Drus in the Alps, the first ascents of Fitz Roy in Patagonia with Lionel Terray or Makalu in the Himalayas... Magnone also participated in the creation of the UCPA and will be president of the Groupe de Haute Montagne from 1961 to 1965. From 1977, Guido returned to his first passion: sculpture, to devote himself fully to it around 1990. He began to exhibit again in 1996. In 2002, he exhibited his sculptures in Paris , Bourg-la-Reine, Aosta then in Etroubles in 2009.
The New Monuments (2018)
Artists like Robert Smithson, Donald Judd and Peter Hutchinson borrowed liberally from science fiction film and literature in their work. This collage treats the marvellous, seemingly indestructible, objects of mid-century science fiction cinema as artworks in their own right.
Leonardo da Vinci and the Bust of Flora (2020)
Acquired in July 1909 by art collector Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929), director general of the Prussian Art Collections and founding director of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, now the Bode-Museum, the Bust of Flora, Roman goddess of flowers, has been the subject of controversy for more than a century.
Het Ding (untitled, 1957) (2018)
Next to the Bijenkorf on the Coolsingel stands one of Rotterdam’s most famous sculptures, an untitled structure created by Russian modernist artist Naum Gabo, that has been simply called Het Ding (The Thing). This documentary about the restoration of Naum Gabo’s nameless sculpture from 1957 combines awe-inspiring shots of this artwork with audio fragments from Gabo’s fiery Russian manifests.
The Living Stone (1958)
The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Carving the Divine (2019)
The documentary Carving the Divine offers a rare and intimate look into the life and artistic process of modern-day Busshi – practitioners of a 1400 year lineage of woodcarving that’s at the heart of Japanese, Mahayana Buddhism.
Christo: Works in Progress (1974)
“Christo: Works in Progress” takes us around the world on a showcase of the artist’s grand environmental installations. With both critique and praise from members of the communities that have hosted Christo and his works, the film takes a deep look into the process and outcome of pieces such as Wrapped Coast, Running Fence, and Wrapped Walkways. While discussing his inspirations and motives, Christo states, “The work of art is not the fabric, steel poles and cable, the work of art is the hills and the ocean, the sky, the gates, the rocks, the people, the light- this is the work of art.” (Christo Vladimirov Javacheff) Though his work may appear to be visually distracting from the landscapes he creates in, Christo’s aim is to bring attention to the land itself and encourage people to take note of their surroundings.
Sculptures for a Windless Space (1995)
A short film with shots of sculptures by Anneke Walvoort. The materiality of film plays an important role: visible grain, flashes of colour, unexpected camera movements.
The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism (2017)
Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerising film is a feast for the eyes. The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism features the sell-out exhibition The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Roundabout Art (2020)
In Europe, road junctions have become public art galleries. A road trip across France, Switzerland, the Canary Islands, Greece and Germany exploring the glorious world of roundabout art.
Seedbed (1972)
“In this legendary sculpture/performance Acconci lay beneath a ramp built in the Sonnabend Gallery. Over the course of three weeks, he masturbated eight hours a day while murmuring things like, "You're pushing your cunt down on my mouth" or "You're ramming your cock down into my ass." Not only does the architectural intervention presage much of his subsequent work, but all of Acconci's fixations converge in this, the spiritual sphincter of his art. In Seedbed Acconci is the producer and the receiver of the work's pleasure. He is simultaneously public and private, making marks yet leaving little behind, and demonstrating ultra-awareness of his viewer while being in a semi-trance state.” – Jerry Saltz (via: http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci_seedbed.html)
Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali (1969)
A documentary about surrealist artist Salvador Dali, narrated by Orson Welles.
How to Get a Head in Sculpture (2011)
From the heads of Roman Emperors to the 'blood head' of contemporary British artist Marc Quinn, the greatest figures in world sculpture have continually turned to the head to re-evaluate what it means to be human and to reformulate how closely sculpture can capture it. Witty, eclectic and insightful, this film is a journey through the most enduring subject for world sculpture, one that carves a path through politics and religion, the ancient and the modern. Actor David Thewlis has his head sculpted by three different sculptors, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, artist Maggi Hambling and art critic Rachel Johnston discuss art's most enduring preoccupation, ourselves.
Traces: The Kabul Museum 1988 (2003)
The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.
The Invisible Network (2024)
A project about the architectural, cultural, and social heritage of the city of Buenos Aires. An investigation about the enigmatic "Casa del Angel", a castle that used to belong to Dr. Carlos Delcasse, and the winged figure in one of its balconies that attracted the attention of all the neighbors: the sculpture of an Angel, which disappeared after the demolition of the house.
Giacometti (1967)
The Arts Council commissioned this film to coincide with their major retrospective of Giacometti's work at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) in the summer of 1965. A similar exhibition was held concurrently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, sealing the artist's reputation as a modern master.
