Marion Lessard, Untitled, 2019.
From our Winter 2020 Preview section, which features conversations with artists and curators on upcoming projects.
Marion Lessard: This is a complex project. It starts with a performative situation: a film set in which the five individual members of the collective that I am reinterpret five different scenes from an iconic film. It’s not necessary to know which film, only to recognize that there is an original that is being recreated. Each member of the collective replays a role from the film, while also remaining themselves. Five different scenes, ranging from six to ten minutes, are woven together to recreate the original narrative, with some gaps. We stuck to the original shot-by-shot as much as possible, but substituted our own words and concerns. It creates a kind of paradox: we are using a pre-existing cinematic structure, but by inserting ourselves into it, we borrow ways of being in order to be ourselves. On top of this, two documentary cameras filmed the set. So all the members of the crew are also part of the project, “playing” their professional and personal roles. Are they acting or are they not acting? It’s not necessarily clear. And there are five different directors for each of the five films. It’s confusing, even to us—we are confused. The important thing is, nobody is outside the frame. —As told to Bryne McLaughlin
Marion Lessard’s exhibition “Doublures” continues to March 21, 2020, at Dazibao.
