1989 / 16mm / color / sound / 24 ips / 16′ 00



Music by Takehisa Kosugi

*A fine introduction to classic Japanese gardens and the concept of MA.* — Scott MacDonald, *Afterimage*

The early sixteenth-century Japanese garden in the Zen temple of Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto, is considered a masterpiece of the *karesansui* or “dry landscape” style… In this film, the viewer is invited to experience the garden as an embodiment of *ma*, a Japanese concept that conveys both time and space… The aesthetic of the film is the message, it has the quality of an experimental film, a conceptual film—an artwork in itself. Good balance of music/visuals/titles. If not as compelling for some viewers as for others, still rated as very effective. Makes one want to visit the actual garden and experience its spiritual energy. — *Art on Screen*, edited by Nadine Covert, New York.

2009 / 16mm / color / sound / 24 ips / 7′ 00



Africa, 2003: the mechanisms of memory. I shot the image of a landscape and buried simultaneously a film strip in the same place where the sequence was shot: the emulsion, the victim of erosion, is thus subjected to biochemical degradation. The result of these natural processes of decay are then conserved in the state of their dissolution. Those two images, and their negative versions, are then entangled together thanks to double exposure and bi-packing techniques. These landscapes in fusion, it’s the logic of a world that reveals itself. A bipolar world, where invisible takes shape with the visible, where the first dissolves itself into the second and vice versa.

2001 / 16mm / color / sound / 24 ips / 8′ 00



Roland Barthes used to say “Aptly named, film (*pellicula*) is but skin without a gape, without an opening, without a wound.” With direct cinema, this formula, which became axiomatic because of the flawless imagery found in traditional cinema, no longer verifies. The ‘smooth’ film of the image is metamorphosed into fragile skin. Contrary to scientific cinematography from the beginning of the century, the micro-organisms are not re-created (by being filmed) but rather reproduced directly on the film (frozen on the film by strip, but made to move on screen by the driving mechanism of the projector). The point is, paradoxically, to reach the extreme of realistic representation by way of an abstract image, by actually showing the micro-organisms, with no other mediator than the lens of the projector. Every single curve, every single asperity that leaves a mark on the film is the movement of time itself, a trace of its passage. The ‘secret forms’ of emulsion are unveiled, and emphasize the materiality of celluloid, and the processes that reveal the image. Proposing further evidence that film material is not inert, this film was made by literally burying pieces of black film during different periods of time and in different kinds of grounds (soil, snow, mud, etc.).

2024 / digital / B&W, color / silent / 14′ 00



A film of blooming through generations. Made for health workers and patients, with the proposal of community care as “lighthouse”. Commissioned by Shinjuku community health clinic akta, footage from community gardens, blooming from Tokyo concrete, and a dreamlike portrait of the hands of caretakers. The film celebrates the abundance and craft of care. Moving through blossoms in a full gradient of color, blooming is presented as a constant possibility. *in bloom* was projected on the wall and window of the health clinic and onto the street, acting as warmth and invitation.

2001 / 16mm / color / silent / 18 ou 24 ips / 2′ 00



Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space’s layout, one’s glance or presence of mind… can make everything change. The boats sail out of the Vieux Port in Marseille to be amongst the poppy fields.

1994–1995 / 16mm / color / sound / 24 ips / 20′ 00



In 10th century Japan, Sei Shonagon, lady-in-waiting to the Empress, wrote of the goings-on at the Japanese court. Fearing vengeance, she hid these secret notes on her pillow. *UTA MAKURA* is also a collection of humorous observations on modern-day Japan ranging from waterfalls to shopping malls, from kids in kimonos to fresh *makimonos*, from ancient wisteria to teenage hysteria, from homemade noodles to live painted poodles.