Sep 13th, 2017, 04:16 PM

Braguino or The Impossible Community: An Exhibition at Le Bal

By Katie Zambrano

Image credit: Katie Zambrano

Exploring the impossible with Cogitore's latest project.

Who

Clément Cogitore is a French artist who focuses on photography and filmmaking. His work represents photography's crucial role in relation to humankind. Cogitore graduated from Strasbourg School of Art & Design and has been producing works ever since. While aesthetically pleasing, Cogitore's work provides a profound and thought provoking experience for its viewers. Cogitore is most widely known and praised for his 2015 feature film, Ni le ciel Ni la terre (Neither Heaven nor Earth). Including Le Bal, Cogitore's work has also been featured at the Palais de Tokyo, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the MoMA in New York City. In addition to Cogitore's many awards, he is the first winner of the Prix Le Bal for Young Talent. His first feature film also won the Prix de la Fondation Gan prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the César for the Best First Film.

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Image credits: Wikimedia Commons/Massivebertrand

What

Gathering footage from 2012 and 2016, Cogitore focuses on two feuding families coexisting in the small town of Braguino in Eastern Siberia. Both families find it impossible to live peacefully amongst one another due to a mysterious conflict that is explained throughout the intriguing and suspenseful narrative. The exhibit highlights several chapters that depict the story of the "impossible community". Projected onto multiple large screens in a near pitch black room provide the viewer with an exceptional and personal experience. Every screen is accompanied with its corresponding chapter, it is suggested that the viewer walk through the exhibit chronologically to fully and comprehensively understand the story Cogitore is telling. As tensions rise in the town of Braguino, the viewer is only more inclined to follow along and see what fate holds for the characters on screen.