The beautiful indifference
The beautiful indifference presents two small catalogs, one of images, the other of stories. The first presents a series of nudes found in Western painting between the 16th and 19th centuries; the second features voices alternating between art-historical and sex-work narratives. The two catalogs overlap, and in their interweaving produce points of contraction: art history awakens the thoughts at work in the images (the paintings), while sexual histories bend them (the images). The repetition of points of contraction works to flatten the excitement created by the nude, whose function it also is, and not to deny it - the excitement - but to relate it to the systems of representation from which it emanates, which it's high time we flattened too.
Vider Vénus rassemble trois pièces – Je baise les yeux, La belle indifférence et Le verrou (figure de fantaisie attribuée à tort à Fragonard).
La fin de chaque volet est le point de départ du suivant : disposition semblable des personnes et des objets, même rideau de velours rouge, mêmes questions.
Il est préférable de voir les trois volets si on souhaite obtenir une réponse aux questions. Mais la réponse n’étant pas limpide, on peut se contenter d’un ou de deux volets.
Directed by Claire Ananos