Location:
Muhka_media
Waalsekaai 47
2000 Antwerpen

In the second of two presentations from the film series Underground/Overseas we will focus on the historical and aesthetic connections between the Zanzibar scene in Paris and the extended social scene around Warhol in New York. When Warhol Superstar Viva (Lonesome Cowboys, Blue Movie, etc.) and the Velvet Underground singer Nico left New York in 1968, they both surfaced in the midst of the vibrant, politically charged, Parisian artistic scene around the Zanzibar group. Both women embarked upon enduring artistic and emotional relationships with Zanzibar filmmakers and continued or, in the case of Nico, resumed their careers in Europe. Nico married filmmaker Philippe Garrel. Viva got together and eventually married the young fashion photographer and filmmaker, Michel Auder. After leaving Europe with Viva in 1969 and heading for the United States, Auder gave up filmmaking to become one of the early pioneers of video art. Since that time, he has created a vast and diverse body of work, which includes a revelatory series of videos chronicling his personal life and the lives of artists and friends around him. Among those featured in these striking video portraits are Cindy Sherman, Hannah Wilke, Larry Rivers, Annie Sprinkle, and, importantly, the Warhol Superstars of the late 60s and early 70s.

Viva Booksigning
was made with one of the first Sony video cameras and features Viva preparing for and attending a book signing of her roman A clef, Superstar. In his typically intimate, observational mode of documentation, Auder captures Viva as she engages in her own inimitable, clever small talk with many of the fascinating figures of the '60s underground scene, including Superstar Mario Montez (of Jack Smith and Warhol fame), Taylor Mead, and Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Keeping Busy
Financed by Zanzibar patroness, Silvina Boissonas, and partially filmed with Garrel's 35mm camera. (Other sections were shot in 16mm.) The film chronicles the lives of Viva and Louis Waldon following the production of Warhol's Blue Movie (1968). "Auder's verit film diary features the Superstars playing themselves over the course of several weeks living out a jet-set fantasy life, gadding through a succession of luxurious locations including Rome, Morocco and Malibu, and using Auder's production budget to do so. The film is non-narrative and non-sequential as it cuts between various locations. The principal footage was shot over an eleven-day period in Rome inside numerous fashionable hotel rooms, where the two stars simply lounge about and recount events from Blue Movie. Keeping Busy is as much a document of Viva and Waldon's mundane antics as it is of Auder and Viva's budding romance." (C. Ondine Chavoya)

The Closet
Conceived by Barbara Rubin, is an Ionesco-like situation in which two people, Nico and Randy Bourscheidt find themselves living together in a closet, for unknown reasons. This absurd and entirely unscripted scenario requires the two stars to make conversation and get to know each other while dealing with the boredom and limited resources of their environment; a certain amount of sexual tension emerges from this enforced encounter between a shy young boy and the goddess-like Nico. One reel of The Closet was included in the original version of The Chelsea Girls in September 1966." (Callie Angell)

Le Lit de la vierge
Philippe Garrel, born in 1948, was the wunderkind of French cinema in the 1960s. His fifth feature, Le Lit de la vierge, is a parable of the Jesus story, set in modern times. In May 1968, Garrel joined his friends on the barricades of Paris, and Le Lit de la vierge, begun just a few months later, echoes with that period's rebellious spirit. Pierre Clémenti plays a Christ reluctant to assume his earthly mission. As the Virgin Mary, Zouzou attempts to reconcile him with his duty. Zouzou also plays Mary Magdalene. But Garrel invokes the Christian narrative only to reject a strict retelling of that story. Made without a script and under the influence of LSD, Le Lit de la vierge is minimally concerned with traditional religion. With an episodic and non-chronological narrative, Garrel's film reminds us of the contestatory attitude of the '68 generation for whom Jesus was a hippie avant la lettre." (Sally Shafto). In one striking sequence in the film, Garrel allows a song by Nico to ring out hauntingly across a desert landscape.

Language English