“Artist’s book & seventh art”
Issue 28 of the magazine Ligature goes into the ‘dark rooms’ to make us feel all the gravitational intensity of black holes in the galaxy called Avant-film. It is the genesis Cinema-to-Graphic (passage of cinematographic processes into the artist’s book and vice versa), which is placed at the heart of the research. At the beginning of this theme was the book The end of the world, filmed by the Angel N.-D. Thus, a scenario by Blaise Cendrars, which was not realized, but installed under the cover of an artist’s book in 1919. In this prodigious volume is created a universe where numbers, letters, quotes, shapes and colors turn on their orbits invented by Fernand Léger.
The editorial staff of the magazine decided to put the reader in the atmosphere of off film in order to discover unexplored circuits. The sections “History” and “Figures” successively present two different but related subjects. One relates to the name of Fernand Léger, the other is devoted to Paul van Ostaijen. The analytical text of the Sphinx Blanc group explores the artist’s book by Fernand Léger and Blaise Cendrars The end of the world…(1919), Sophie Samson’s essay opens us to the artist’s film Mechanical ballet (1924). Staying in the interwar period, we put the scenario under the lens Jazz Bankruptcy by Paul van Ostaijen, which after a century became the material for the artist’s book. In turn, it is episode no. 39 of Van Ostaijen’s text, where the Prince of Monaco is declared president of the Dada Republic, which gave rise to the creation of a unique book entitled Dada Jazz Band (2021) and transposing the subject into the Monegasque topography. The “Discourse” section ends with Pierre Schroven’s essay “And we spectators…” evoking the artist’s film The Rain made by Marcel Broodthaers in 1969. It follows the trail of this short film in the whirlwind of a kaleidoscope of textual and graphic contributions in homage to Marcel Broodthaers experimented by the group Sphinx Blanc. In the section “Artist’s Book” is presented the original graphic work with cinematographic fragmentations Night-rope (screenplay-film-project) 2007 by Serge Chamchinov whose drawn character emerges from the bookish body with a torch lighting up the darkness. The Flemish artist Hans M. Huyghebaert intervened in the “Dossier” section with his contribution entitled “Cinematographic aspects in my artist’s books” derived from his own creative experience. In the “Unpublished” section, as a reflection of the theme of cinema in relation to the artist’s book, the poem by Felip Costaglioli emerges Cinema-Faithmanuscript accompanied by the typographic transcription.
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Summary
FOREWORD
FIRST SECTION: HISTORY. “Fernand Léger & Blaise Cendrars”. Sphinx Blanc Group, ” The End of the World which will never be filmed” (analytical text). Sophie Samson, “Nineteen minutes of Mechanical ballet » (essay on the short film).
SECOND SECTION: FIGURES. “Paul van Ostaijen”. Excerpt from the script Jazz Bankruptcy 1921, 2022 drawings by Serge Chamchinov. White Sphinx Group, Dada Jazz Band 2021, artist’s book with Monegasque motifs, unique copy. Poem by Paul van Ostaijen In Cendrars 1921. A Portrait (PvO) 2023, composition par Anne Arc.
THIRD SECTION: SPEECH. “Marcel Broodthaers & Charles Baudelaire”. Groupe Sphinx Blanc: “Artist’s film by Broodthaers The Rain 1969″, followed by a graphic composition Horizontal rain 2024. The rain that erases the textanti-project 2024 for the poem Beauty 1857 by Charles Baudelaire. Essay by Pierre Schroven “And we spectators…”
FOURTH SECTION: ARTIST’S BOOK. “Serge Chamchinov”. Two analytical texts by Jean-Pierre Hastaire: 1/ “How can a film script be installed in an artist’s book”; 2/ “Metamorphoses in the artist’s book” The Night Rope (2007) »
FIFTH SECTION: DOSSIER. “Hans M. Huyghebaert”. “Cinematographic aspects in my artist books”, essay by the artist 2024. Photo credit by Sigrid Lescrauwaet.
SIXTH SECTION: UNPUBLISHED. “Felip Costaglioli”. Manuscript of the poems of the 2024 cycle Cinema Faith (“A Manifesto”, “A Memory”, “An Accident”). Layout by François Isson.
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Scientific Committee of the journal Ligature
Caroline Bérenger. Doctor of Letters from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne, researcher and lecturer at the University of Caen (France).
Serge Chamchinov. Painter, Doctor of Letters from the University of Paris-VIII (France).
Felip Costaglioli. Poet, professor emeritus (aesthetics of cinema) at the University of St Cloud (United States).
Louise Dupré. Poet, novelist, member of the Academy of Letters of Quebec (Canada).
Pascal Fulacher. Doctor of Art and Art Sciences from the University of Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, historian of paper, books and bookbinding (France).
Stefania Iannella. Painter, Master of Letters from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne, literary critic and polyglot (Italy).
Jean-Nicolas Illouz. University Professor. 19th Century French Literature (France).
Jean-Claude Mathieu. Professor Emeritus of Modern French Literature at the University of Paris-VIII Vincennes Saint-Denis (France).
Zoé Monti. Doctor of Letters from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, art historian, editor (France).
Jan H. Mysjkin. Multilingual poet, translator (Paris, France/Bucharest, Romania).
Yves Namur. Poet and doctor. Permanent Secretary of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium.
Anna Samson. Poet, painter, doctor of letters (France).
Pierre Schroven. Poet, literary critic, trained as a librarian and documentalist (Belgium).
Nicolaus Werner. Visual artist, emeritus professor of fine arts at the University of Mainz (Germany).