January 12, 2009

Jack H. Skirball Series
Brigitte Cornand
Chère Louise
Los Angeles premiere | France, 1995, 50 min., b/w and color

"A slow and insistent penetration into Bourgeois' daily practice... A tight, lucid portrait." The Brooklyn Rail

Documentarian Brigitte Cornand first met Louise Bourgeois in 1994 and over the next dozen years made a trilogy of intimate videos about the iconic artist, now 97, through an idiosyncratic form of collaboration between filmmaker and subject. The first installment of the trilogy, Chère Louise (Dear Louise), traces the inspirations, autobiographical sources and everyday routines that shape Bourgeois' powerful art. "I asked Louise if I could keep filming moments of her life on a light but regular schedule, using a diary-like form, a visual collage, similar to her own thought process and the personal diaries that she's kept writing since 1923," Cornand says. A former producer of art programs for Canal+, she has also completed films on figures such as Annette Messager, Joan Jonas, Nancy Holt, Jonas Mekas and Jean Nouvel.

In person: Brigitte Cornand

Presented in conjunction with the retrospective Louis Bourgeois, on view at MOCA Grand Avenue through January 25. Info at moca.org.

Curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud.

Funded in part with generous support from Wendy Keys and Donald Pels.

For student and CalArts alumni, faculty and staff discounts,
please call the REDCAT box office at 213-237-2800.