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2 AV (2007)


This film consists of a succession of still images from a long tracking shot in Second Street in the Rhodia workers’ housing estate in Roussillon, near Lyon. The camera records a series of houses and gardens, all identical, giving us a glimpse of the fixtures and fittings and habits of the occupants. Against this uniform backdrop, individuals appear fleetingly, performing everyday acts or playing music. The only event to disturb this apparently unremarkable panorama is the passage in succession across the screen of two brass bands. The sound has been reworked to form an independent composition, sometimes synchronised, sometimes not.
2 Av. transposes the model of the factory estate, originally the creation of an employer, and later a locus of working class social solidarity, into the modern context of mass urban planning: its repetitive horizontality evokes the tower block and a desire for the independence of house and garden, the lower middle-class ideal of the serially constructed semi-detached. 2 Av. is also reminiscent of films—classic westerns or American TV series—where the opening scenes depict a street whose harmony will soon be revealed to be pure façade. But here, the editing of the images in an unending loop places the narrative in a cul-de-sac, tiny fictional stories disappearing before they have time to form.
This paradoxical collective work—each individual plays to his or her score without concern for overall tempo but within a common space and time—was created with the Institut d’art contemporain in Villeurbanne and Travail & Culture in Roussillon, a non-profit association that sprang from the people’s education movements of the post-War period. Might this point to a closeness between 2 Av. and Prototipos and Anarchitekton in examining the confused relationship between art and politics?

EXHIBITION VIEW


2 Av. Galería Juana de Aizpuru. Madrid 2009

 

2007
Master HD-CAM
5’12’’
sound
prints of 5 copies and 1 AP

Chief operator: Antonio Cortés
Line production: Katia Kameli
Director of actors: Caroline Garçon
Sound production: David Sicot
Sound recording assistants: Matthieu Schmitel, Benjamin Seror, Mathieu Weil (École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon)
Editing and video post-production: Adolf Alcañiz (Barcelona)
Editing and sound post-production : Vidua Xing Pirata
Composer: Xavier Maristany
HD post-production: Apuntolapospo (Barcelona)
Still photographer: Sergi Olivares
Making of: Fanny Adler
Stage management: Philippe Briot, Nelly Chanaux, Philippe Denys, Nathalie Laurent, Joëlle Marboux, Chantal Poncet
Equipment and technical team: Vido Rion et Jean-Luc Courtel, Tatooine Production (Rillieux-la-Pape, France), Nicolas Hoffnung, Videoplus (Saint-Ouen, France), Yves Forestier, Association des Pilotes acrobates auto-moto (Oytier, Isère, France)

Inhabitants of 2nd Avenue: Mme et M. Annad-Khelifi, Mme et M. Barcelo-Garcia, Line Bard, Alexandra Berger, César Bolla, Stéphane Bourget, Madame Bouvat, Mme et M. Bouvier, Mme et M. Bruchet, Mme et M. Cabane Boz, Mme et M. Cabane-Jot, Magali Caillot, Vincent Canata, Raymonde Charnot, Mme et M. Cheyne, Mme et M. Coutas, Madame Dazan, Mme et M. Delgado, Mme et M. Delgado-Romeas, Mme et M. Diaz, Andrée et René Glasson, Mme et M. Liccia, Lila Madaci, Angèle Manas, Dominique Martin, Mme et M. Martinez, Mme et M. Mercey Gérard, Mme et M. Michalon, Élodie Onado, Mme Pasutto, Mme et M. Perez, Mme et M. Perreira da Silva, Geneviève Petit-Gonon, Laurence Piot, Mme et M. Reynaud Bertacco, Mme et M. Ripert, Jérôme Rochas, Ginette Rosa, Sébastien Rosa, Jocelyne Sostiente, Daniel de Souza, Thierry Tournebise, Mme Tournigand, Francesca Velasco, Mme et M. Yepez
And all neighbours and short-stay friends: Mme et M. Michelas Georges, M. Petrilli, Mme et M. Roudil, M. Terry

Musicians: Joliot-Curie elementary school orchestra: Florian Achard, Selma Bendris, Coline Bruneel, Yann Coutas, Floriane Denolly, Ambre Dervieux, Léonie Galéa, Anthony Guillen, Rayan Herzallah, Jonathan Jacquet, Jessica Kerrar, Lisa Marques, Yanis M’Siah, Anaïs Pertuzon, Enzo René, Elisa Robert, Margot Sonier, Claudia Terrier (pupils) et Lionel Abry, Joëlle Giraud, Flore Pène (accompanists), Terrebasse Brass band: Christian Corsat (band director), Bernard Fiorentino et Guy Martinon (co-presidents), Roger Ailloud, Céline Blasko, Christian Blasko, Robert Bourget, Pierre Clauzel, Claude Clemaron, Jean-Michel Dolphin, Maurice Girodet, Christophe Marlhe, Eliane Martin, Anthony Morel, Franck Morel, Jacques Peyroux, Gaston Pie, Georges Pinel
Two accordionists: Angélique Proenca, Jean-Yves Serve
Musicians at residents’ homes: Manon Berthet (guitar), Laurent Blanchard (guitar), Matthieu Brun (platinum), Constance Buniazet (clarinet), Thibaud Coulon (guitar), Monique Desgouttes (accordion), Rémy Dumont (derbouka), Fabien Gianmattéo (electric guitar), Hugo Gilbert (violin), Jean-Marie Ledivellec (cajon), Yoann Masson (keyboard), Pauline Roudier (clarinet)

Aknowledgments: Mairie de Roussillon (Isère, France), Mairie de Salaise-sur-Sanne (Isère, France), Batterie-Fanfare de Terrebasse, École élémentaire Joliot-Curie (Salaise-sur-Sanne, France), École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Commission du film