Victor Missud

Installation

Three metres above the ground stands a house, halfway between a makeshift shelter and a child’s treehouse.

If we were to guess what it seems to contain, we might say: wind, rain and a few storms, day, night, and its own unique weather system. Moreover, if you look at it from above (if you are able to), you can see that its roof is full of holes and forms a constellation of points of light, as if it had even gone to the trouble of making its own starry sky.

And it looks as if there’s a fire burning inside it, sometimes fragile, sometimes self-assured.

If you walk round it, you notice it has no door, so it cannot welcome anyone; you cannot enter it. Perched on its stilts, it doesn’t seem to want to come down, nor does it seem to want to leave. Three metres – that must be its own distance, its just-right distance: neither close nor far.

And although it is made of woollen blankets, you can still hear it trembling. And when it trembles, things inside it shift – you can see their shadows.

We also hear a few notes of piano coming from it (falling from it): five or six notes, no more, which harmonise now and then, then scatter, as if it were constantly searching for its own melody.

So, at first glance, it might seem rather fearful, or at least worried. It certainly is, but it is nonetheless filled with moments of courage and vitality. To me, it is an organism still taking shape, a world in the making, an unstable planet that lurches, tries, fails and dares. This house, inhabited by itself, resembles, I would say, a person who hasn't completely come out of their bedroom yet.

Victor Missud

Découvrir le profil

Victor Missud’s practice arises from his engagement with people marginalised by their local communities and society at large. They become the protagonists of works straddling the boundaries of documentary, fiction and genre cinema. He uses the resulting friction between reality and artifice to explore collective dynamics, the conditions of coexistence and new ways of living. His latest films – *La forêt de l’espace*, *À qui le monde*, *Solenopsis Invicta*– have been screened and won awards in France and abroad – Centre Pompidou, IFFR Rotterdam, Visions du Réel, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, IDFA Amsterdam, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, États généraux du film documentaire de Lussas.

Production

Credits