Clément Cogitore
"Braguino or the impossible community"

Exhibition: 15 September – 23 December, 2017

Clément Cogitore visited Braguino twice (in 2012 and 2016), "Braguine’s place" in Russian, taken from the name of a family of 'Old Believers' living in a handful of huts lost in the middle of the Taiga deep in the heart of Siberia, 700 km from the nearest village. He went to Braguino to try to solve the mystery of Sasha’s drive to move to there with his family over thirty years ago, in the hope of living in peace, and constructing a completely self-sufficient lifestyle. However, very rapidly this paradise becomes the scene of an open battle between two families who cannot live side by side, who cannot agree to a shared way of life. This impossible community is the central axis of Clément Cogitore’s film, photo and sound work.

Plunged into darkness, the installation at LE BAL is like total immersion for the visitor, at the heart of a narrative in several acts, each one a filmed fragment revealing another intrigue, each one with its own rhythm, place and action : arriving in Braguino by helicopter, Sacha’s dream, a bear hunt, the mysterious island where the children roam free, all build to the intense crescendo of an armed conflict. All of which throws us into a twilight world, as do the large, luminous photos in muted tones that track this journey.

With truly archaic dramaturgical prompts, Clément Cogitore evokes the conflictual tenets of the great myths. Braguino relates the experience of a two-pronged dilemma: to escape or stay put, to build something together, or destroy oneself. Far more than a mere ethnographical study, Clément Cogitore tells a cruel tale that echoes 'the tipping point of our civilisation'.

If this world is doomed to perish, what does its disappearance really symbolise?

Clément Cogitore is a french artist whose film-making and photography explore the potent questions of how images are made and their active role in human constructions. He is the first winner of the Prix Le BAL for Young Talent in association with the ADAGP.

After graduating from the Strasbourg School of Art & Design (Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg), and the Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts (Studio national des arts contemporains), Clément Cogitore developed his own way of working which combines film and contemporary art. A mix of films, videos, installations and photos, his work highlights the relationship we maintain with the ritualistic aspects of the sacred by looking at the world and its mysteries: the original darkness of the cinema marries the secrecy of the night in our actions and gestures. His thought-provoking work investigates our own visibility and awareness of man’s place in the world he has created, and his political strong hold in the spaces he designs. In 2015, his first feature film Ni le ciel Ni la terre [Neither Heaven nor Earth] enacted, through fiction, the metaphysical quest for meaning in a world at war. With this in mind, he takes us on a journey of discovery to Braguino ou la communauté impossible [Braguino or the impossible Community] where Cogitore describes the tipping point between the boundaries of civilisation and faith.

A former resident of the Académie de France at the Rome Villa Medici, his films have been selected at several international festivals (Cannes, Locarno, Lisbonne, Montreal...) and have won numerous awards. His work has also been exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, as well as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the MoMA in New-York. In 2015 he made his first feature film.

His first feature Ni le ciel Ni la terre [Neither Heaven nor Earth] was recently awarded the Prix de la Fondation Gan at the Cannes Film Festival - Semaine de la Critique, and nominated for the César for the Best First Film. In the same year, he was awarded the Prix Le BAL for Young Talent in association with the ADAGP. In 2016, he was also awarded the Prix Science Po for contemporary art and the 18th Prix de la Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard for Contemporary Art. In July 2017, his film Braguino was awarded a Special Mention for the Grand Prix in the International Competition at the FIDMarseille.

Clément Cogitore was born in Colmar in 1983, and currently lives and works in Paris. He has been represented by Galerie Eva Hober (Paris) since 2016 and by Galerie Reinhard Hauff (Stuttgart) since 2015.