Elliot Eugénie
Liesse - Film - 10min - 2021
presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 23
Film
The day of the solar eclipse is coming near, and here is a grey sky to spoil the event. After a night partying, three friends sleep by the waterside and see the eclipse in their dreams. Meanwhile, a wave of joy is crossing the country. A new party is beginning. When the eclipse was due in 1999 there were many who missed it because of meteorological variations. But when the vision does appear, the whole country rises to its feet, shouting out at the power of the event. The eclipse is a unifying character. Ephemeral and sovereign before the stunned inhabitants, it makes their problems disappear in one euphoric instant. Beyond the show, this event interrogates the population’s unilateral reaction, forming a collective energy without a foundation. Like a power bringing together millions of persons around the same irrational and dangerous action: looking straight out at the sun, which usually makes us lower our eyes so as not to burn them. Not only does the moon take over the sun here, but the viewers defy it too, as the only moment in their life when they can confront it. Much more than a magnificent spectacle, it is a moment on earth when it is symbolically possible to brave the sun. The film describes the hours of waiting before the eclipse, a greyish, misty afternoon.
Elliot Eugénie
Born in 1994, Elliot Eugénie began working with film at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and continued at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (2019–2021). In his work he shows ways of coping with and avoiding degradation (be it social or environmental) and is interested in the genesis of unifying events and the emergence of utopias. Through a sensorial exploration of narration, he develops the vision of a distant, suspended world, oscillating between realism or parallel times. The narratives, constructed from gestures, atmospheres and music, extrapolate the everyday to extract its intensity, forming a sensuous and effervescent mosaic.
