OnView: Togetherness

OnView is a new series at the PalaisPopulaire: each spring and fall, the museum will showcase films by international artists around a specific theme, spanning up to six weeks. The first edition brings together six works under the title Togetherness.

The theme of “togetherness” encompasses concepts such as cohesion, solidarity, agreement, and unity. The selected films by Trisha Brown, Cao Fei, Cinthia Marcelle, Rene Matić, Marco Perego, and Koki Tanaka offer viewers various perspectives on questions of community, belonging, family, social bonds, and trust. What holds us together and makes us part of a community? What must individuals contribute to ensure the functioning of that community?

The work Leitmotiv from 2011 can be seen as an introduction to the Togetherness series—a metaphor for the roles of individuals in a democratic society. For this film, Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle asked a group of cleaners to wipe water across the floor in such a way that a swirl forms within the rectangular field of view of the camera. The water remains in the center only if everyone works together, wiping with equal force from all sides. As soon as one or more participants ease up, the water runs off. All involved are equally responsible for maintaining the fragile form.

The starting point for Koki Tanaka’s A Haircut by 9 Hairdressers at Once (Second Attempt), 2010, is also a performance. The film is part of a series of experiments in which Tanaka brings people together to work collectively on a single task. In this case, nine hairdressers attempt to cut the hair of just one model at the same time. Throughout the process, participants must set aside their individual ideas, approaches, and habits to explore what can be accomplished together. This open-ended experiment also serves as a documentation of social interaction.

The title of Rene Matić’s Many Rivers, 2022, already hints at the theme: many different rivers become one stream. The film is a deeply personal and moving portrait of Matić’s father. The longing to belong to a community, whether social or familial, is a central theme of the work. The film focuses on the racial and class barriers that defined British social life in the postwar period.

The film Leaning Duets captures Trisha Brown’s 1970 performance of the same name on the streets of New York’s Soho district. In her choreographies, Brown often recontextualizes everyday movements through carefully executed, repetitive gestures. Leaning Duets shows five couples who can only move or take steps forward in unison with one another; together, they achieve a balance rooted in trust.

Dovecote, 2024, by Marco Perego, which premiered in the Vatican Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, is an almost wordless film set in the women’s prison Giudecca in Venice. The camera follows the release of an inmate, marking her farewell to a community. The loss of familiarity, affection, closeness, and solidarity casts a shadow over the uncertain future of freedom as an individual.

Cao Fei’s 2018 film Asia One can also be seen as a study of social relationships. Set in the near future, it focuses on the only two people employed at the vast, fully automated logistics center “Asia One Unmanned Warehouse.” Initially, the couple seems to feel closer to the machines and an AI robot assistant than to each other in this highly efficient environment. Asia One is part musical, part love story, offering a sometimes humorous exploration of human interaction in a digitalized world.

Curated by Sara Bernshausen, Deputy Director PalaisPopulaire.