Vincent Meessen (1971) produces discursive works at the crossroads of the documentary and conceptual art. He focuses on the cultural appropriation of usages, signs or documents, which he moulds and reshapes as narrative. His work is characterised by a recitative style and uses various written formats such as fable, tale, essay and motto. Meessen often employs collaborative procedures which undermine the authority of the author and privilege the collective understanding of multiplicities. Clinamen Cinema overviews recent works, all filmed in Ouagadougou. N12°13.062’/W001°32.619’ Extended (2005) reveals an inverted image of western urban planning. In The Intruder (2005), the camera simultaneously performs and records reactions to a performance on the streets of Burkina Faso’s capital. An African fairytale format is introduced to corrupt documentary imagery, revealing its multiple, related meanings, in Les sociétaires/ De Vennoten (2006). The Invisibles’ Parliament uses animation in order to reflect on the animistic power of ghost images. In A Broken Rule (2007), Meessen’s translated recordings of a street parade become fictionalised and mythically charged. Vita Nova (2009) explore the unkown context of a famous magazine cover analysed by Roland Barthes in his Mythologies (1957).

Works featured:
N12°13.062’/ W 001°32.619’ Extended
2005, 8’25", colour, sound.
The Intruder
2005, 7’26", colour, multiple languages spoken, English subtitles.
Les sociétaires/De Vennoten
2006, 8’55", colour, Moore spoken, English, Dutch and French subtitles.
The Invisibles’ Parliament
2006, 4’11", colour, sound.
A Broken Rule
 2007, 2’6", colour, sound.
Vita Nova
2009, 26’56", colour, French spoken, English subtitles.

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