Boulanger travelled about the world for years with his video camera at the ready. As a correspondent he recorded much suffering; as an independent artist he commented critically on (war) reporting. How far can you go in showing violence? Reality is always filtered and distorted, even in our own memories. Is giving information verbally not obscene? Where is the forbidden zone? 'Zone Interdite' opens with the motto “I would like to find peace”, a reference to war, dying and “rest in peace”, but also to finding an answer to some haunting questions. In an empty space a correspondent is making an inaudible report on the current situation. The image then multiplies into hundreds of tiny building blocks which then part and give view to fragments of everyday reality. Things we encounter while travelling. Street scenes from Lebanon to India, faces of children and adults. Nothing wrong here. But a disquieting change makes its insidious entrance. We see short flashes of violence and the image becomes more and more distorted by digital manipulation. As the rhythm of the music gets faster we see a montage of fleeing citizens, riot police, men beheading a goat – or was it a man? Boulanger has turned the image into an 'aesthetic' filter around the men, women and children. Perhaps they are the same people we saw earlier walking along the street. We now assume that the people we see are victims. In the end there are no more people, only shelled out flat buildings, filmed jerkily and out of focus. Is the rhythm of destruction fascinating? The correspondent makes his report again, but we still cannot hear him.
– Lies Holtrop
|
Editing: Guillaume Boulanger, Bijan Zanitsch Khah, Music: Heiner Goebbels
Guillaume Boulanger ° 1968, Paris (France)
Lives and works in Paris (France)
|
|
1 9 9 8 
