INTRODUCTION
Subject : Boaz is the legend. It is the postulate of the narrative and it’s the community where the young man lives that says so, because people need a surface where to project their desire for transcendance ; Boaz is this surface. Yet, he asked for nothing. Even, he’d rather be like any other man of his age. But he accepts his load and therefore is nothing ; he doesn’t live for himself, but only for them all.
But the legend cannot live, as they all know : His father Amos, Deborah his sister and the whole community who let him leave without realising that he’ll take Malachie with him, his brother who worships him, and from whom he is inseparable.
Subject of the novel : Within the community where he was raised, a young man is designated as the legend. It is Boaz. Now, he is eighteen years old. During the day, he works at the grocery with his almost-father Amos and the rest of the time with Malachie, his almost-brother who now studies at the University. With Amos and Malachie, Boaz cherishes a unique bond. Deborah can witness it. Between Paris where they all live and the Italian island where they spend every summer, time passes. Now, time has passed. Boaz, Malachie and Deborah are in their early twenties and each one of them little by little became what he is, totally, at any cost.
Novel / artworks : In the novel are evoked certain objects or photographs, often produced by the characters themselves, that materialise, in the exhibition, becoming visual or sound artworks.
Stages : Boaz is developed by stages, each of which unveiling a different aspect of the story.
1/ The first stage of the project has taken place in May 2021 at Galerie Sator – Romainville, where were exhibited the eponymous novel’s characters’ artworks : Malachie’s dolls, his drawings – the stars, his photographs of the crosses on the walls of the Procida island, Deborah’s photo album and her drawings, Malachie and Boaz’s film as well as my own film, built on Boaz’s images.
2/ At La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, most of these artworks are exhibited again along with – and for the first time, the after-Boaz and the appropriation – the celebration of Boaz’s legendary character by the community once he has disappeared, through :
◊ a series of conversations with the two survivors, Deborah and Amos, by Emmanuelle Lequeux, Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Sandrine Wymann, Marie Chênel, Coline Davenne & Ami Barak ;
◊ some audio documents – archives of Deborah’s interrogations ;
◊ artworks celebrating the legend : a monolith, a clock, some posters and portraits.
3/ Boaz‘s third stage, work in progress, will show the journey of a young man, born long after Boaz’s disappearance and having not known the legend but htrough its appropriation – autoritary and administrative, so he thinks – wishing to destroy it to set free.
STAGE 1
GALERIE SATOR, KOMUNUMA, 2021
ARTWORKS
- Boaz, film — 23 min, UHD 16:9 stéréo
- Boaz is my brother — video, 5 min 50, UHD, 4:3 stereo
- Malachie’s dolls — straw & wire
- Doll portraits — RC Canson paper
- The photographs of crosses on the walls — dim. 40 x 60 cm
- Deborah’s album — photo album, 60p, drawings by Meris Angioletti
- Malachie’s stars — 2 cyanotypes, dim. 60 x 90 cm
- Letter from Malachie to Romain
- Posters — series of cyanotypes, excerpts from the novel, dim. 30 x 40 cm
- Boaz, novel — unlimited ed., 10 x 17 cm, ed. Sator
STAGE 2
LA KUNSTHALLE MULHOUSE, 2022
ARTWORKS (in progress)
- Doll landscape — straw & wire sculptures arranged on a wooden sculpture (dim. 500 x 120 x 60 cm)
- The monolith — sculpture made of granit & wood, dim. 300 x 300 x 230 cm
- The clock — sound artwork, dedicated software, 2 wide band loudspeakers, 1 horn speaker
- The interrogations — sound artwork, 2 loudspeakers, dedicated software
- Boaz, novel — limited ed., 120p, 14 x 21 cm, Rives Tradition paper
- Deborah and Amos’ slides — 34 slides in loop, with the participation of Meris Angioletti
- Boaz è mio fratello — sound artwork
- Investigation report XIX/265 — text
- Correspondence — Emmanuelle Lequeux, Ami Barak, Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Marie Chênel & Sandrine Wymann are invited to dialogue with the characters
THE FILM
With a small video camera that never leaves his side, Boaz films his daily life, and in particular Malachie, his adoptive brother from whom he is inseparable. For the summer of their twentieth year, the brothers decide to make a film on the island where they have spent all of their holidays. The idea is Malachie’s : by making the film, he hopes to dispel the mystery that surrounds Boaz, and at last find the words to say why he admires his brother so much. But Amos, the boys’ father, cancels the trip, and it is up to Boaz to convince Malachie to make the film regardless.
Credits : film by Romain Kronenberg, with Yannis Amouroux, Audrey Bonnet, Mathieu Amalric & Zéphir Moreels. Editing by the artist, dop Julia Mingo, original soundtrack by the artist, produced by Delphine Schmit (Tripode Productions). With the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée.
The project Boaz is supported by Commission mécénat de la Fondation des artistes, with the support of Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (Ministère de la culture).