Sophie Kaplan
Director of La Criée centre d'art contemporain
Having attended art school in his hometown of Winnipeg and been immersed in alternative popular cultures from the outset (notably through his involvement in rock bands and production of numerous fanzines), Marcel Dzama has been developing a prolific and joyful body of work since the late 1990s, in which drawing and film are central.
A great admirer and connoisseur of early cinema, from which many of his films borrow elements such as black-and-white imagery and expressionist gestures, Marcel Dzama is, in a broader sense, curious about a variety of creative worlds: the surrealist spirit, early modernism, pop culture, illustration, underground music, etc. These references, whether recognisable or not, fuel a fantastical universe - immediately identifiable in itself - that is sometimes magical, sometimes cruel, sometimes poetic, sometimes political.
The exhibition Le voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) features around fifteen films. During an hour-long programme devised by the artist, visitors can discover films from his youth, films shot on the spur of the moment, others featuring his son and father, and still others produced as commissions. Humour and inventiveness imbue this selection with the same energy. Marcel Dzama has also chosen to highlight two films, presented in two dedicated screening rooms: Une danse des bouffons (A Jester's Dance) (2013) and To live on the Moon (for Lorca) (2023). The first is inspired by the love story between Marcel Duchamp and sculptor Maria Martins, the second by the figures in the moon and poet Federico García Lorca.
In parallel to the films, objects, sculptures, masks, drawings, models and storyboards are presented in the central space of the art centre. Whether it be costumes, pieces of scenery or sketchbooks taken directly from the films, or drawings created elsewhere, we find the same inspirations and the same humour in both colour and line.
From pencil to lens, from poetry to politics, Dzama plays with the codes and history of burlesque and fantasy with the virtuosity of a tightrope walker. His works combine references and virtuoso pirouettes with a pleasure, freedom and joy that we trust will prove contagious.