mardi, avril 29, 2008

bulle ogier in "la vallée"

La Salamandre d'Alain Tanner (1971), un film que j'essaie de voir depuis des années; Bulle Ogier en 1971. Mais aussi les deux acteurs principaux de ce film géant, Jean-Luc Bideau et Jacques Denis. Aussi, des actrices comme Juliet Berto, plus encore que la Zouzou ou la Nico de Philippe Garrel, femmes à surnom. Des actrices de cette trempe, uniquement. Peut-être que la femme de Joseph, jeune acteur et trader rencontré il y a quelques semaines, est de cette race là... La femme dans ce qu'elle a de rebelle à tout sauf à elle-même, rébellion qui ne vient pas du garçon manqué en elle, mais de la seule Ève en elle.

Criticism: to have agreed the validity of any critical approach in all the art fields and human knowledge. Then, to pass one's way... To not tint one's own work with an artificial critical touch, fake, slow run after a rapid train... But to defend, affirm, claim in a critical context, the right of re-enchantment... A critical re-enchantment which has seen the ruins and decided lucidly, to sing all the same. To sing louder. This is a posture in movement, a walking posture, while the critical posture is a seated posture. Critical is the seated P(h)arisian who knows the Law perfectly, while the re-enchanter is like a walking Jesus.

jeudi, avril 17, 2008

ivar

Le Jardin Ouvrier, from 1995 to 2003, was a poetic garden where the poet Ivar Ch'Vavar (a poet born in 1952 who lives in Amiens under 100 heteronyms) grew flowers that only grew in his étrange jardin picard. Flammarion, the french publisher, recently published an anthology of this adventure. Since one of the main characteristic of le Jardin was its extreme poverty (paper, design, distribution...), Yves Di Manno at Flammarion decided to keep intact la pauvreté de l'original. Page 365 and 366, two pages by G.W. Toog, a man searching for a pseudonym, instead of a heteronym... In this 400 pages anthology, many poems by Christophe Tarkos, Lucien Suel, Laurent Albarracin, Christophe Manon, Nathalie Quintane, Stéphane Batsal, Charles Pennequin, and many others, sometimes in other languages (picard dialect, scottish, german...).

I met Ivar Ch'Vavar with Florence a few years ago in Amiens, when we used to have a Dyane. We met in his house rue Gaultier de Rumilly, the same street where Jean-Jacques Perrey used to live as a very young man. But first, before having heard of him, I bought a book by Evelyne Salope Nourtier, a female poet who was mentally sick, poor and abandonned, about her inner conflicts between salvation/destruction/alienation. There was also souvenirs in this book, written by people who knew her closely. We published some of her poems with an english translation in TO. I really loved this pink poetry book and wanted to know more... Evelyne Salope Nourtier was one of the 100 heteronyms of Ivar Ch'Vavar. This is how we met the man. He gave me a pile of original Jardin Ouvrier non-mags, and a copy of his masterpiece, Hölderlin au Mirador, as an original auto-edition which came out before this confidential one.

So why do Flammarion publish an anthology of Le Jardin Ouvrier instead of Ivar's own poetry, which fills many of these garden pages? The same logic would create an Adam and Eve's religion instead of God, the periphery becoming the centre. Reversed french poetry history... Really, the world is upside down and I don't understand anything anymore.

mercredi, avril 16, 2008

retroviseurla courneuve 3piscine 10th^lante poste rue choronrue du rendez-vouspianodemgolf2office framestrampoline77walkdon du sanglacourneuvepeoplerue saint fargeaumetrola courneuve 2la courneuve 4ikeagymnase 10thmon lapin

lundi, avril 14, 2008



Last month in Paris, the invité d'honneur at the Salon du livre was Israël. What a good idea, what a perfect time! A great sign appeared not in the sky but in the metallic hall were the huge book fair took place: a heavy partition fell on Israël's President during the opening, because of the heavy crowd. The security guards, like angels, lift up their wings together and could stop the wall right before it knocked Shimon Peres head. Here is the only film we have of this incredible event. Did Israël politicians understand the sign? It's an international and easy language; it means: 'I know you like walls in Israël, so here is a heavy wall for you, my friend.'

salon livre 2009

In a few months, let's all go to China! What a good idea, what a perfect time! An other country where liberty rhymes with if I want. I wonder what will be the sign there, if it will be as accurate as the Salon du Livre one. What could it be?

dimanche, avril 13, 2008

Qumran, grotte4

Having moved to the new appartment 2 weeks ago, thanks to our friends physical help and psychological support (special thanks to Aurélien, François, Olivier, Rémi, Elizabeth), we have been busy finishing our installation. Florence is back to drawing after 4 months of severe frustration due to the hard work we had to make ourselves/ourslaves. The street where we live now is ugly but we love it. It looks like an ancient prostitution street, and in fact it was. The man who grew up here recalls the dames de petites vertus bringing him home from school. A sudden descente de police during the sixties stopped this activity. The ancient hôtels de passe have become hôtels de la honte, the same hotels for poor strangers as the Paris Opera who burned exactly 3 years ago in 2005. Hopefully, they are being renovated...

Now I'm going back to music but technically, nothing works except my imagination. I could eventually send to Karaoke Kalk a new track for his forthcoming compilation, a track called l'Esprit de l'inventeur featuring the voice of Michel Gondry. The french director talked to me about his grand father, inventor of the electronic bells and the clavioline, one proto-synth I do own. I finish to correct the script of the Prepared piano and will go back soon to the post-production of Prelude to Sleep, Jean-Jacques Perrey's documentary, which was an incredible film to make, a blessed experience because everything was working like in a dream. How could I imagine, for instance, that Angelo Badalamenti would play Visa to the Stars on the piano, one track he composed with Jean-Jacques in the early sixties? The film should be finished in may but I will need to add english subtitles right after. Contributions for correcting my french to english translations are welcome! What else...



I'm reading a book about the origins of christianism and learn a lot about the Qumran manuscripts, the Essenians, the reality of Israël during this strange period of roman occupation. I need to know more about Jesus in his context to be able to figure out what his coming was, as a reality event and not only a reported reality event. It has nothing to do with faith. I need to know more about the context of Jesus life; I promise that I won't become Franco Zeffirelli or Mel Gibson if one day - who knows. Pasolini's Jesus is alright, apart from his 'ragazzi' tendency: his Jesus is much too beautiful. “He has no form nor glory, nor beauty when we beheld him, but his appearance was without honor and inferior to that of the sons of men.” (Isaiah 53)

jeudi, avril 10, 2008


It's my first review as a poet. I didn't know the name of the verses I made (arithmogrammatical) because I composed these 36 poems between 1994-1998 and found the verses process all alone, like a poetical ascese. It's always kind of stupid when a solitary quest leads you to a spot that other people already reached, without you to know them. It's like getting to a desert island after a shipwreck... But only half of the island is desert: the one you reached. The other side is a popular family resort.

This music video by Philippe Boisnard (the man who wrote the chronicle) features a song by the french poet Sylvain Courtoux, in his electro-cheap opera rock: 'Vie et mort d'un poète (de merde)'.

lundi, avril 07, 2008

There is a link between Un Homme qui dort, a book/film from french writer Georges Perec and Sean Penn's movie Into the Wild (Chric Mac Candless real adventures into the wild, that ended up tragically in an abandonned bus on an Alaska trail). Going into the wild can also happen in a room, in a city knowned by heart, like Georges Perec's character who's gone far away without going anywhere. This is an experience of the limits, the limits of being human without being human.

jeudi, avril 03, 2008

I call me non- in the previous post, because every commitment in this actual world means a lot of keys that I'm not possessing. For instance, being a musician means being able to play a live concert: I cannot play any instrument live. Being a poet today, means to write about the processes of language: I don't do that, it's not my job and I find it interesting- boring. Being a filmmaker signifies loving the people and the stories between them: I don't like the people, my heart is not opened enough for it. And I hate most of the little stories and constructions they make, the jouissance of the ego and other projets égoïstes of their lives. This is why I hate most of the french cinema from today. Except someone like Isild Le Besco.

mardi, avril 01, 2008

It is through Canada that I became a non-poet. Through Britain and America I became a non-musician. Through France, I might become something like a non-filmmaker (title is wrong: the documentary is called PRELUDE AU SOMMEIL).