GERARD BYRNE

Thanks to a spatialisation mechanism, the soundtrack of the video, Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane) (2004), by Irish artist Gerard Byrne (1969), integrates the viewer into the space of his projection. Byrne shows, with the support of a theatrical representation, extracts from an interview between journalist Catherine Chaîne and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1977 in the Nouvel Observateur, on his relationship with women, in general, and with Simone de Beauvoir, in particular. The quality of actor Michel Debrane’s technique confers an authentic presence to the filmed interview which at certain moments affects us by the evocation of his own wretchedness or by his anachronistic positions vis-à-vis women. Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane) is part of a series of interview productions, stemming from old magazines, in which Byrne seeks, he says, to “confront one present with another”.

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