4/2/2015
Mark Lewis
Le Bal, Paris
'Above and Below' The exhibition presents the many vectors that go through mark lewis's work, regarding questions of capital and bare life, as they transpire through the 'potential of cinema'.
The exhibition will revolve around above and below the minhocao (2014). other pieces will be installed surrounding this major piece. Above and below the minhocao work translates the many vectors that go through mark lewis’s work, regarding questions of capital and bare life, as they transpire through the “potential of cinema”.
Vertigo as a dispositif (device) is used almost all the time through a particular use of camera shots to "translate" the effect the moving image can have on thinking out these essential questions of our times. Mark Lewis’s concern with the "legibility" of the moving image is directly related to these issues.
Questions come about, thinking about "legibility", the essential one being how can something that moves be legible ? And what is "contemporary" legibility about ? How does it work considering most images move nowadays. How do you experience a “live” moving image, or how does one experience a moving image “live”?
Mark Lewis’s work investigates questions of perception and especially attention, as a counter-economy of sorts. He films the world as a stage that can be discovered and rediscovered through the cinematic apparatus, thus coming back to cinema’s initial claims to give a view of the world, unheard of ever before, an unknown world latent in the midst of everyday reality.
Considering the frequency with which Mark Lewis inscribes the name of camera shots in his titles (Downtown, Tilt, Zoom and Pan; Willesden Launderette, Reverse Dolly; Queensway, Pan and Zoom for example), it seemed pertinent to call the show "Above and Below". This proposed title directly relates to the Above and Below the Minhocao piece, and also relates to the ideas of capital/bare life, and expanding consciousness through the use of vertigo... The particular space of Le Bal is also taken into consideration since the building houses two floors, the exhibition itself will incorporate the “above and below” of the building, to which corresponding pieces will be identified, including the stairway linking the “above” and the “below”.
A book will be published by Le Bal and designed by Agnès Dahan
Image: Above and Below the Minhocão, 2014, 5k transferred to 2k, 11’14’’ © Mark Lewis - Film still courtesy and copyright the artist
Press Contact:
Louise Devaine +33 (0)1 71 722528 devaine@le-bal.fr
Le Bal
6, Impasse de la Defense Paris
Opening hours
Wednesday – Friday, noon – 8 PM
Saturday, 11 AM – 8 PM
Sunday, 11 AM – 7 PM
Late night on Thursday until 10 PM
Admission fee
Full rate €5.00 — Concessions €4.00