01.06.–15.07.2001

At Portikus Frankfurt am Main, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster will show an installation, in which two films are presented. The elements of the installation are entirely reduced to the necessary components of a cinema: a projection room, seats, and a screen. Both films are 10 minutes long and projected in 35mm. The short films show urban landscapes in which public space and water play determining roles and which are traversed and occupied by individuals in a specific way and at very different moments. Description of particular atmospheres and moments are always basic elements in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's well-known spatial installations.

"Riyo", from 1999, was made in Kyoto, at the bank of the Kamo River between Shijo Bridge and Sanjo Bridge. The telephone conversation of a young couple makes the urban backdrop, anonymous big-city architecture during sunset, appear as the biographical site of encounter and flirting. The urban landscape presents itself through the dialogue of the two youths with all its multiple backgrounds. A totally different city seems to emerge beyond what can be seen of it: emotional, fleeting, immature and open.

In "Central", from 2001, a young woman waits for the arrival of her brother near the Star Ferry landing terminal early in the morning. She takes a walk along the Hong Kong Bay. The woman's monologue describes the birth of a unique moment, a melancholy mixture of lonesome lives, maritime architecture and early-morning peace. This is where all kinds of people begin their day, each one in a different way, and all of them alone. The film deals with the city and the manner in which it changes every individual. The monologue additionally makes it clear how people constantly define their expectations anew in face of the intensity and size of a big city on the waterfront.

Both films of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster were shown this year in the context of the international film festival in Cannes.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (* 1965 in Strasbourg) lives and works in Paris.