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Johan Grimonprez

Hitch vs Hitch Courtesy of Zapomatik


Belgian filmmaker/artist Johan Grimonprez caused an international stir with his first feature film dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, a dizzying chronicle of airplane hijacking that eerily foreshadows the events of 9/11. Traveling the main festival circuit from the Berlinale to Sundance, his critically acclaimed films have garnered Best Director Awards and were acquired by NBC Universal, ARTE, and Channel 4. In addition, his works are part of the permanent collections of the Tate Modern and the Centre Georges Pompidou, as well as having been exhibited worldwide.

An exploration into media's mutating collusion with mass perception, Grimonprez's work is an inspired media archaeology that can be envisioned as both the joyful affirmation of a global disengagement, as well as the catalyst of effervescent criticism. In a society where excessive media consumption has redefined the role of the storyteller, what is at stake is how to tell a personal story in a world abundant with images.
 


Hitch vs Hitch
Courtesy of Zapomatik
Hitchcock as Wrong Man
Courtesy of Universal & Zapomatik
Leonid Brezhnev - Nikita Khrushchev, April 17, 1964.
Courtesy of Zapomatik
Unknown Unknowns, Donald Rumsfeld, Department of Defense News Briefing, February 12, 2002.
Courtesy of Zapomatik
YouTube-o-theque, Manipulators, Maybe the sky is really green and we’re just colorblind
Le Plaisir
Ron Burrage, Hitchcock double.
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Looking for Alfred
Kozo Okamoto, Red Army commando, Tel Aviv, Mai 1973.
Leila Khaled commandeers TWA Boeing 707 into 7-min detour over occupied homeland, August 1969.
Raffaele Minichiello, Rome, November 1, 1969
Three hijacked jets on desert Airstrip, Amman, Jordan 12 September 1970.
dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y
It will be all right if you come again, only next time don’t bring any gear, except a tea kettle…
KOBARWENG or WHERE IS YOUR HELICOPTER?
KOBARWENG or WHERE IS YOUR HELICOPTER?


Flanders Arts Institute

Expertise centre for performing arts, music and visual arts.