Photographer, filmmaker and artist, Agnès Varda (1928-2019) developed a body of work that, based on an incorruptible humanist perspective, has always been conceived as an act of communication, as an instrument for understanding and establishing a productive relationship with the other. Her filmography, a notable example of a discourse firmly anchored in time, contains over 40 works, including short and feature-length films, which navigate between fiction and documentary. A journey with such outstanding titles as Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985), The Gleaners (2000) and I, Faces Places (2017), which allow us to follow a line of continuity between the forging of an aesthetic of modernity within the Nouvelle Vague and the discovery of new challenges and new possibilities (of mobility and expressive freedom) in the midst of the explosion of the digital image.
Varda was one of the few women of her generation to make a career as a filmmaker. Her first-person films made her a recognizable figure, associated with Rue Daguerre where she lived and worked for 70 years.
From her links with the history of art to the social and political dimension of her discourse, the exhibition covers the major themes of her polymorphic body of work. Varda circulates images from one medium to another, from the still image to the art installation, always seeking to awaken the visual sense: “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” Agnès Varda was a figure constantly committed to the renewal of visual perception.
A tenacious worker and artist of conviction, from her beginnings as a photographer in 1950 Varda showed her evident command and mastery in her rigorous framing, sense of detail and composition. From the camera obscura to the iPhone to the Rolleiflex and Leica, a large part of her photographic work has not yet achieved the visibility it deserves. In the early 2000s, cinema was no longer enough, so she ventured into museums, demonstrating her extraordinary ability to capture the spirit of the time from an aesthetic, thematic, and political perspective in a series of installations that never ceased to dialogue with her photographic and cinematographic work. Five of the installations created by Agnès Varda during this stage of maturity will punctuate the layout of an exhibition that will also have screening booths that will allow visitors to view in their entirety some fundamental pieces of the artist’s work in the field of short film.
Pleasure, discovery, and transmission are always at the heart of her work. Her sense of humour, the literary quality of her witty commentaries, her recognizable voice and her exceptional talent as an exegete are present in the exhibition through quotes, fragments of interviews, artistic objects, documents, and a detailed look at her creative process.
An original exhibition produced by the Cinémathèque française in collaboration with Ciné-Tamaris and contributions from Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy. Presented at the Cinémathèque française (Paris) from 11 October 2023 to 28 January 2024. Programme of screenings in collaboration with the Filmoteca de Catalunya.
The exhibition Agnès Varda. Photograph, Film, Recycle is an extended adaptation of Viva Varda!, devised and produced by the Cinémathèque française in Paris in collaboration with Ciné-Tamaris and with the kind contribution of Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy.
About the Exhibition
Dates: 18 July–8 December 2024
Venue: Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona
Artistic Director: Rosalie Varda
Advisor for the exhibition at the CCCB: Imma Merino
Courtesy of Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona.
