Homo Urbanus Europeanus

Artist: Jean-Marc Caracci

http://homo.urbanus.free.fr/portfolio/index.html

The “Homo Urbanus Europeanus” project is about the Man, in the City, in Europe… let’s say about the European “Urban Being”.

Each picture of the project, by the accuracy of its framing and its crisp style, sounds in my mind like a hymn to the magnificent citizen. Indeed, this character who walks, stops and weaves through the city, often lonely but no less proud and determined, is not insane, but rather has the stature of a conqueror. Moreover and according to me, this human presence, this silhouette captured with fineness, always in the right place at the right time, gives the city an unexpected beauty and majesty.

Although primarily an aesthetic work, the “Homo Urbanus Europeanus” project does not hide its political dimension. Indeed, it consists of 31 series, representing 31 European capitals, all photographed in the same style, sober and without any cultural or social visibility, thus favoring the similarity to the difference, the “europeanity” to the diversity. The “Homo Urbanus Europeanus” project is in a way an artistic tool for uniting European countries… whether they already belong to the European Union or not yet.

During 3 years, from summer 2007 to summer 2010, 31 European capitals have been photographed in the frame of the project. Here’s the list :

Bratislava, Riga, Vilnius, Sofia, Madrid, Warsaw, Rome, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Helsinki, Tallinn, Reykjavik, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm, Prague, Berlin, Istanbul, Lisbon, Bucharest, Tirana, Budapest, Vienna, Athens, Luxemburg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and Dublin. Istanbul is the only city which is not a capital, but it is nonetheless regarded as the European capital of Turkey.

Artist: Jeanette Groenendaal / The Netherlands

Biography

REFORMATION ( English Subtitled)

‘A seductive and furious film essay’, Raymond van den Boogaard, NRC handelsblad

At the age of seven, director Jeanette Groenendaal (Dutch Cocaine Factory, 2007) moved to a deeply religious village.

It was the 1970s, and the girl’s arrival from the city provoked fear in the hearts of the inhabitants of the small hamlet

in the Dutch Bible Belt. They saw her as an “alien” and a “city whore,” and treated her accordingly. The teacher at her

strict Calvinist school called her “Devil’s daughter” and the whole class repeated his words.

Thirty-eight years later, Groenendaal returns to the village to film a personal study of the scapegoat mechanism.

A project staging tableaux performances melting frozen memories on an emotionally charged location. In a series of

‘visions’ she reconstructs, excerpts from her childhood in the village.This stylized flashback is more than a personal

therapy session or a documentary about a fundamentalist community. It returns to the past, not out of revenge or a

need to judge, but to investigate the roots of a past that is returning to the present, with the contemporary outpouring

of religion, conservatism, xenophobia, and judgmental moral standards.

‘How does one group of people who think that they know the truth, what is right and wrong,

how do they decide if somebody else is going to hell?’

Biography Jeanette Groenendaal (1964)

Lives and Works in Amsterdam

Independent Experimental filmmaker

Producer, writer, director, camera, montage, distribution

(Art) Director and Producer of http://www.G-netwerk.nl/;

Art-Science productions, Video Installations, Patricipation Performances

Education: Master of Theatre DasArts, Amsterdam (2006)

Filmanalysis, Filmacademy Amsterdam

Binger Institute; Masterclass editing with Molly Stensgard

Hermetica studies, Illustere School, UvA (2010)

REFORMATION (79’)

IDFA Amsterdam International FilmFestival 2011

Planet Doc Documenatry Filmfestival2012

Reijkjavick International FilmFestival2012

Guanajuato International Film Festival 2012

EYE FilInstituut 2012

Arthouse Tour Holland 201

dOCUMENTA 13 2012

REFORMATION Work in Progress (multiple screen theatre installation)

De Brakke Grond 2009, IDFA 2009, Planet Doc Review 2009, Artisterium 2010

DUTCH COCAINE FACTORY (54’)

DocAlliance/ Ximon Online screenings

(IDFA 2007, subtitled in English Spanish Korean and Polish)

screened in over 10 festivals worldwide and toured Dutch Arthouse theatres

presented with performances and talkshows

Media I Arts I Sciences G-netwerk; in Collaboration with Zoot Derks:

MONT AGE Video Installation, Zoot Derks, IDFA 2011, De Brakke Grond 2011, dOCUMENTA 13

BIOARTCAMP Video Installation, Banff centre of the Arts 2011, Video Poo, WinnipegCanada

TIMELINE CRITICISM with E.S.A, UvA De Brakke Grond 2011

V.A.S.T.A.L series on BioArtist Adam Zaretsky, Waag Society 2010, dOCUMENTA 13 (2012)

DEEP WOODS PCR with Paul Vanouse 2012

Dramayama 2011, 2012

Black Tea Party Erwin Olaf 2010

Inside Out with Jennifer Willet 2008

Dangerous Liasons with Adam Zaretsky 2007

Performances

Jeanne Dark, Eye Filminstituut 2011

EYE MOVES, Eye Filminstituut 2011

Dramayama, Eye FilmInstituut 2011

Initiating art collectives; PATAPOE Artporn- ZootenGenant- G-netwerk

Nominated for the Magic Hour Award, Planet Doc Review, Warsaw

supported by FilmFunds The Netherlands – FondsBKVB- AFK, De Brakke Grond

distributed by; G-netwerk/ EYE (NL)/ Against Gravity (PL)/ INCUBATOR