07 Jul 2008

MARRES presents: CURTAIN RAISER July 9 - September 28

Marres, Centre for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht, shows from 9 July onwards the exhibition Curtain Raiser. The exposition focuses on several short movies of the French director François Ozon. Curtain Raiser is curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen and reacts on the present presentation about the Flâneur: À l'extérieur. Rites de Passage. Both exhibitions will be on show until 28 September.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the flâneur occupied an exploratory position in Paris city life, implying a new bond with the dynamics, the uniformity and the anonymity of modern city life. Charles Baudelaire examined this phenomenon, characterising the flâneur as a distant and observing figure peculiar to urban culture, yet one who simultaneously abandoned himself to experiencing and reflecting on city life.

Entitled Curtain Raiser, the focus here is on this double relationship, only this time round with the help of work by French director François Ozon. This filmmaker is intrigued by the various ways in which a breach occurs in someone's personal life, and an alternative lifestyle evolves making a transforming moment (of the protagonists) possible. In Ozon's work, this transformation is the result of an obsessive longing, often leading to a renewed idea of one's own identity.

Curtain Raiser focuses on the short films Ozon made in the early years of his career. They are of great artistic value and can be regarded both as cinema and as visual art. The exhibition is now displaying these original cinematographic works at an art institute and in combination with Rites de Passage. These contextual changes provide opportunities for reinterpreting Ozon's films in various ways.