Clément Cogitore
LE BAL is presenting Braguino or the impossible community, by Clément Cogitore, winner of the first LE BAL Award for Young Creation with the ADAGP.
"Clément Cogitore visited Braguino twice (in 2012 and 2016), « Braguine’s place » in Russian, taken from the name of a family of ‘Old Believers’ living in a handful of huts lost in the middle of the Taiga deep in the heart of Siberia, 700 km from the nearest village. He went to Braguino to try to solve the mystery of Sasha’s drive to move to there with his family over thirty years ago, in the hope of living in peace, and constructing a completely self-sufficient lifestyle. However, very rapidly this paradise becomes the scene of an open battle between two families who cannot live side by side, who cannot agree to a shared way of life.
This impossible community is the central axis of Clément Cogitore’s film, photo and sound work.
Plunged into darkness, the installation at LE BAL is like total immersion for the visitor, at the heart of a narrative in several acts, each one a filmed fragment revealing another intrigue, each one with its own rhythm, place and action :
arriving in Braguino by helicopter, Sacha’s dream, a bear hunt, the mysterious island where the children roam free, all build to the intense crescendo of an armed conflict. All of which throws us into a twilight world, as do the large, luminous photos in muted tones that track this journey.
With truly archaic dramaturgical prompts, Clément Cogitore evokes the conflictual tenets of the great myths.
Braguino relates the experience of a two-pronged dilemma: to escape or stay put, to build something together, or destroy oneself.
Far more than a mere ethnographical study, Clément Cogitore tells a cruel tale that echoes ‘the tipping point of our civilisation’.
If this world is doomed to perish, what does its disappearance really symbolise ?"
-Diane Dufour and Léa Bismuth
To go along with the exhibition, LE BAL and Filigranes Éditions co-published Clément Cogitore - Braguino or The Impossible Community.
« Braguino or the impossible community ON AIR » : to go along with the exhibition, LE BAL and France Culture associate in order to make a sound creation around the Clement Cogitore's work presented at LE BAL. Listen on France Culture the podcast « Création On Air » by Irène Omelianenko, directed by Gilles Mardirossian.
In the Press
Curators : Diane Dufour with Léa Bismuth.
Related to the exhibition at LE BAL, the film Braguino was directed by Clément Cogitore, with the support of LE BAL Award for Young Creation with the ADAGP and co-produced by Seppia Film / Making Movies / Arte GEIE La Lucarne released in movie theater since November 1st and on TV, the November 20, on Arte.
In July 2017, Cogitore received the special mention of the Grand Prix de la compétition internationale of the FID Marseille.
LE BAL Award of Young Creation with ADAGP is organized with the support of the
Project supported by the Cercle des 100 Amis Mécènes du BAL