Marcel Broodthaers: Tarte au Cinéma (dot) edu

The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to present Tarte au Cinéma (dot) edu, an extension of our ongoing remote film screenings by and about Marcel Broodthaers. Tarte au Cinéma (dot) edu is offered to all educators and institutions interested in having the films be part of their curricula. Screenings are offered by appointment over Zoom, Mondays through Fridays, in two-hour time slots, from 10am to 9:30pm. The films are available now through Friday, April 30.

Tarte au Cinéma (dot) edu features the worldwide premier of The ABCs of Marcel Broodthaers (2019), a one-hour documentary by Bertrand Lafontaine on the life and work of the legendary Belgian artist, in cooperation with M HKA, Antwerp. In keeping with the “cinema pie” theme, two short films by Broodthaers, to be chosen by each audience, will serve as the top and bottom crust for each screening.

The full menu can be perused on our website. To book a screening, please click on the community link below to receive a digital reply card with which you can select your film program and screening date.

The ABCs of Marcel Broodthaers is a spirited introduction to Marcel Broodthaers through the eyes of some of his closest friends and art world colleagues, including gallerist Anny De Decker, publisher Yves Gevaert, curator Kasper König, and painter Walter Swennen. Broodthaers’ widow, Maria Gilissen, is the de facto master of ceremonies throughout the film, offering candid insights on her late husband’s peripatetic life and peculiar work ethic. Broodthaers himself makes many archival film footage appearances, his personage by turns evoking the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Kurt Schwitters, P T Barnum, and Andrea Fraser. The documentary is in Flemish and French with English subtitles and is being shown with the permission of Bertrand Lafontaine. The Broodthaers films are being shown without permission.

Screening requests from individual scholars and students are also welcome. Children are not permitted to request screenings.

The Broodthaers Society of America provides a forum in which America might contemplate its fictions through the life and work of Marcel Broodthaers. When Broodthaers died at the relatively young age of fifty-two, he left behind many unfinished ideas on such themes as “the amateur,” “laziness,” and the “mask of reality.” The Broodthaers Society periodically mounts exhibitions and events that expand on these ideas; houses an extensive archive of Broodthaers related material; and maintains a growing community of scholars and enthusiasts. Most recently we have converted our parlor floor into MBnb, a commercial space available to artists, designers, gallerists, writers, and people in trade the world over.