Marcel Broodthaers and Film - by Steven Jacobs & Raf Wollaert (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Marcel Broodthaers, one of the key figures of the postwar avant-garde, has been recognized and extensively studied as a poet who became a visual artist in 1964. However, years before creating his first sculptural objects and installations, Broodthaers made his debut as a filmmaker in 1957 with La Clef de l'horloge, embarking on a prolific cinema practice that yielded more than fifty films shot on 35mm and 16mm. Cinema, both as a medium and principle, was crucial to his artistry. Broodthaers' writings and visual works are interspersed with allusions to cinema, its history and its technology.

Covering both well-known titles such as Le Corbeau et le renard (1967), La Pluie (1969), and Une Seconde d'éternité (1970) as well as many lesser-known Broodthaers films, the essays in this book discuss his films as inseparable from his entire oeuvre while situating them in the larger history of experimental film. In addition, the book scrutinizes his experiments with cinepoetry and expanded cinema, as well as his interest in early cinema and his fascination with signs and inscriptions.

Contributors: Andrew Chesher, Eric C. H. de Bruyn, Xavier García-Bardón, Charlotte Friling, Steven Jacobs, Bruce Jenkins, Deborah Schultz, Christophe Wall-Romana, and Raf Wollaert

Review Quotes

"A rich and inspiring collection of essays that shed light into the yet unexplored work of Marcel Broodthaers as a filmmaker. Providing fascinating and detailed descriptions of several of his films and written in an engaging style, the book is sure to inspire scholars and researchers alike interested in the work of this talented and versatile artist and in experimental cinema and its connection with the other arts". - Loukia Kostopoulou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

"Long overlooked in studies of Marcel Broodthaers, this innovative collection of essays brings into sharp focus the centrality of filmmaking in the Belgian artist's multifaceted oeuvre. Tracing the rich interconnections between Broodthaers's prolific, yet little-known filmic output and his literary and artistic creations, the book offers a much overdue reassessment of one of the key figures of the post-war avant-garde." - Marion Schmid, University of Edinburgh

About the Author

Steven Jacobs is an art historian specializing in the relations between art and film. He teaches at Ghent University and the University of Antwerp.

Raf Wollaert gained a PhD on the subject of Marcel Broodthaers's cinema at the University of Antwerp.