Faire le mur
2008
The work is displayed as part of the permanent exhibition
Audiovisual Media
Μονοκάναλο βίντεο
Video
Colour, with sound
Duration 17’
Production Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, 2008
Purchased in the framework of the program NEON FUND FOR EMST, 2017
Inv. No. 1143/17
Bertille Bak's (1983, Arras, France) art is a vibrant fusion of personal history and creative exploration, deeply rooted in her upbringing in a mining family in Northern France. Bak's practice transcends conventional boundaries, weaving together film, installation and diverse communities, with playful absurdity. Her multi-disciplinary work immerses her in diverse communities, from the mining town of Barlin and the Polish community in New York to a French convent in Paris. Her approach combines anthropology and social geography with humour and imagination, sensitively engaging with the communities’ ethical systems and traditions, often with a touch of affection and wit.
Bertille Bak's works are not just observations; they are whimsical fables. In her video work, Faire le mur (2008), set in the town of Barlin, she follows the daily fight of residents against real estate developers who seek to push them to move. Faced with this pressure, the people of Barlin, under her guidance, enact a poetic resistance against an invisible enemy, humorously represented by a huge excavator. Based on child-like fantasies of rebellion, such as houses protected by multiple locking doors, communications through handmade tin-and-string telephones, and a DIY brick catapult propelled by the weight of a child, the public resistance is staged in a grandiose theatrical form. The film is accompanied by the installation Rayonnage (2015), comprised of six tapestries hung perpendicular to the wall. The tapestries, made collectively by community members, are recreations of iconic works of art depicting scenes of persecution or resistance such as Théodore Géricault’s Raft of Medusa and Francisco Goya’s Third of May 1808.
Bertille Bak was born in Arras, France. Solo exhibitions (selection): Jeu de Paume Paris (solo), Paris (2024), Marcel Duchamp Prize, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023), Le musée du Louvre-Lens, Lens (2023), Mineur Mineur, Mario Merz Foundation, Turin (2022), Bertille Bak-Poussières, Artconnexion, Lille (2019), Usine à divertissement, FRAC PACA, Marseille, FRAC Normandie, Caen (2017), Circuits, Modern Art Museum of Paris, Paris (2012). Group exhibitions (selection): The Human – The Conditions of Creativity in the Age of AI, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2023), Barbe à Papa, CAPC Bordeaux (2022/2023), Kochi Biennial, Folklore, Centre Pompidou Metz (2022), Mario Merz Prize finalists, 3rd edition, Foundation Merz, Turin (2019), ANTIDORON-EMΣT Collection, Documenta 14, Fridericianum, Kassel (2017), Hacking Habitat, Niet Normaal Foundation, Utrecht (2017), 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (2015), Double feature, Schrin Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2015). Her work is part of following collections : Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Paris, FRAC Rhône-Alpes, FRAC Aquitaine, FRAC Alsace, FRAC Basse Normandie, FRAC Limousin, François Pinault Collection, Artis, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création, among others.