Johan Grimonprez
Looking for Alfred
December 19th 2004, at 18:00
Centre for Fine Arts | Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Rue Ravensteinstraat 23
1000 Brussels, Belgium
Admission Free
www.bozar.be
Looking for Alfred, Johan Grimonprez, 2004, courtesy of Zapomatik / Film and Video Umbrella
Within the framework of Revolution/Restoration curated by Dirk Snauwaert & Barbara Vanderlinden
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“I thought I was safe until you guys came along, digging up all those others
Hitchcock look-alikes. Now we will have to find ways of disposing of them…”
– Ron Burrage, professional Hitchcock look-alike
Sunday December 19th the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels will premiere in Belgium the new film by the celebrated Belgian artist, Johan Grimonprez. Titled Looking for Alfred, the work is part homage to the director, Alfred Hitchcock. Focusing on Hitchcock’s regular, and famed, cameo appearances in each of his films, Looking for Alfred is foregrounding these walk on parts with the aid of Hitchcock look-alikes. Over the past few months the artist’s quest has been to find the perfect ‘doppelganger’ and in the exhibition* the film will be counter-pointed with behind-the-scenes footage of its production including screen tests held in New York, Los Angeles and London in the hunt for the perfect Alfred.
Filmed in the atmospheric interiors of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, a seminal art deco building designed by Victor Horta, the setting creates a suitably beguiling and uncanny mise-en-scene. This choice of background, and along with the recurring motif of the man in a suit wearing a bowler hat, brings to mind another great modern auteur – the surrealist artist Ren Magritte.
* Exhibition from March 4th to April 4th 2005 in the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
Also :
Photographer’s Gallery, London from December 10th 2004 to 9th January 2005
Mead Gallery, University of Warwick Arts Centre: February 14th to March 8th 2005
Screening at Film festival Rotterdam 2005 : www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
Artist House, Oslo, Norway: February 4th to April 1st 2005
Moderne Museet, Sweden: May 1st 2005 – June 1st 2005
A Zapomatik / Film and Video Umbrella co-production
In association with the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels/Program Revolution-Restoration, The Photographers’ Gallery and Anna Sanders Films.
Made possible by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund and Arts Council England.
Additional support from Deitch Projects, Riksutstillinger – The National Touring Exhibitions Norway, Yvon Lambert Gallery, Media Space Inc., Victoria and Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg)
Contact : Sophie Lauwers, Exhibition coordinator sophie.lauwers@bozar.be
