FILMOGRAPHY
FILMS – VIDEOS – PERFORMANCES - INSTALLATIONS
Born in Paris in 1952, Christian Lebrat belongs to the generation of “post-structural” French filmmakers who emerged during the 1970s associated with the Paris Films Coop and the review Melba. Highly influenced by Abstract Expressionist painting and such filmmakers as the Austrian Peter Kubelka, he developed a system of “perforated ribbons” whose configuration he modulated to create unprecedented effects of chromatic and rhythmic intensity. His exploration of color and rhythm culminated in Trama (1978-1980) and Holon (1981-1982), while at the same time he was developing in parallel his inquiries into photographic and cinematographic self-portraiture.
Having at the time already created performance pieces for projectors, he returned to this practice in 2006 and has since simultaneously produced photographic works and series of videos, first in analogue form starting in the 1980s and then resumed and expanded in digital formats in the last ten years. Broadly speaking, it can be said that his work encompasses an on-going effort to redefine and enlarge the perception of images by opening up new fields of expression.
Eric Thouvenel & Carole Contant, Fabriques du cinéma expérimental (2014)
FILMS
Film numéro deux (1976)
16 mm, color, silent, 3’
Couleurs délicieuses sur fond bleu (1976)
16 mm, color, silent, 9’
Organisations I, II, III (1977)
16 mm, yellow-red-blue, silent, 3 x 5’
It is above all in this last series that a space particular to film emerges, a space which goes beyond the borders of the screen into an optical zone usually hidden in film but which this film reveals. Here Christian Lebrat, by working directly on and within the film strip, carves out various moving fragments which intermittently constitute an intermittent series.
Claudine Eizykman, France 78 : Intermittence(s) d’intermittence(s) (1978)
Réseaux (1978)
16mm, color, silent, 10’
Trama (1978-1980)
16 mm, color, sound, 12’
In Trama Christian Lebrat has produced colors “inside our eyes rather than on the screen,” like the colors which fascinated Goethe. The experience is thus based on time but also on the essence of color (which is not only a percept: by blinking our eyes rapidly a stroboscopic effect transforms and immobilizes the film, reducing it to a succession of color charts; Lebrat rigorously demonstrates that in film only “physiological colors, can put into play the effect of retinal persistance). By doing so, in his own way, he asks the same question: “when is there color?,” but also adding the concomitant question “where then is it?”
Jacques Aumont, La Couleur en cinéma (1995)
Autoportrait au dispositif (1981)
16 mm, color, silent, 18 fps, 9’
Autoportrait au dispositif can be considered as a short manifesto for Lebrat cinema. It is a film made with a moving frame (the use of masks is one of the dominant characteristics of his films), which brings to mind certain primitive filmmaking experiments; here the filmmaker emphasizes and isolates a number of particular aspects of camera mechanics, beginning with the intermittent rhythm of motion which constitutes an authentic formal obsession for Lebrat. The self-portrait uses multiple exposures and the symmetry of the image, it is a refined, sophisticated film which bears the stamp of a personality whose nuances are highly recognizable.
Stefano Masi, ParisFilmsCoop ou le voyage fantastique (1983)
Holon (1981-1982)
16 mm, color, silent, 14’
Le Moteur de l'action (A. M. D.) (1985)
16 mm, b&w, sound, 8’30‘’
PERFORMANCES AND INSTALLATIONS FOR FILM
Liminal Minimal I & II (1977)
2 x 16 mm, performances for loops and 2 projectors, yellow-red-blue, silent, variable duration.
Since 1976 Christian Lebrat has created over twenty films, videos, and performances (…). During the 1970s and 80s, he pursued work on abstraction which has marked the history of experimental film and is firmly rooted in the tradition pioneered by De Stijl. In his series Organisations in particular which he began in 1977 and whose images are integrated as loops into the performance piece Liminal Minimal, Lebrat seeks to reinvent the units of measure of film by dividing the frame into vertical parts and combining colors according to different formulations. In this performance, he manipulates in real time, during projection, two projectors running film loops. The loops consist of yellow, red, and blue vertical bands which move laterally according to a predetermined score. By playing with the size of the images, superimposing and juxtaposing them over two screens, tilting the projectors and changing the focal length of their lenses, the filmmaker reinvents the projected film frame in his own way. In his wish to “start from zero with pure forms,” Christian Lebrat seeks to “sculpt space” and transform color into “vibration.”
Philippe-Alain Michaud, De Stijl – Mondrian : Architectures de film (2010)
Pictures (1982-1983)
16 mm, performance for loops, projectors, wide angle lens and color filters, color, silent, variable duration.
LIMINIMAL (2003)
2 x 16 mm, performance for loops, b&w and color, sound, 10’
Ultra (2006)
2 x 16 mm, performance for loops, painting on film, screens, color, silent, variable duration.
Autoportrait ciselé (2008)
Installation. Film 16 mm scratched by hand, 30 meters, color, silent, projected as a loop.
Camera: Giovanna Puggioni
Production: The Film Gallery
SAGOMA (2008)
16 mm, performance for film, painting and screen, color, silent, variable duration.
DOUBLE TRAMA (2013)
2 x 16 mm, performance for 2 participants, projector shutters, color, sound, 12’.
VIDEOS
Flux Re Flux (1978-1981)
Video, color, sound, 9’30‘’
Production: Centre Pompidou.
Out of (K)nowhere: A film by Anne Prat (2003-2006)
Video from 16 mm performance, b&w and color, sound, 24’
Editing: Christian Lebrat assisted by Hervé Houillé
V1 (Tourbillons) (2007)
Video, b&w and color, sound, 11’
Camera and sound : Christian Lebrat
Editing: Christian Lebrat assisted by Hervé Houillé
V2 (Puccini) (2008)
Video, color, sound, 4’50‘’
Camera: Christian Lebrat
Music composed and performed by: Ophélie Humbertclaude
Coordination: Philippe Dijon de Monteton
Sound: Gilles Bénardeau
Titles: Nicolas Droin
V3 (Collapse) (2009)
Video, color, sound, 10’20‘’
Camera : Christian Lebrat
Editing: Christian Lebrat assisted by Hervé Houillé
V4 (It Could Happen to You) (2009-2010)
Co-directed with Giovanna Puggioni
Video, color, sound, 11’30‘’
Music: “It Could Happen to You“ (Johnny Burke / Jimmi Van Heusen), performed by Matt Renzi (Sax), Masa Kamaguchi (Bass) and Tony Arco (Drums)
Editing: Christian Lebrat & Giovanna Puggioni, assisted by Hervé Houillé
V6 (Les Oiseaux) (2012)
Video installation, loop, color, sound, 2 screens, 2 soundtracks
Editing: Christian Lebrat assisted by Hervé Houillé
HO-LON-AIR (2018)
Video installation and performance, color, silent, 2 video projectors, crumpled paper, variable duration.
V5 (Zip-Zap) (2009-2018)
Video, color, sound, 5’58‘’
Post-production: Light Cone
Editing: Christian Lebrat assisted by Yannis Davidas