© Ben Rivers
Screening
The figure on the wall
Ben Rivers film cycle
Saturday 18 November 2023 • 2:30 PM
Jeu de Paume – Paris
With an introduction by author Daisy Hildyard. With Ben Rivers and Antoine Thirion.
films screened
Things
2014, 16 mm, black and white and colour, sound, 21 mins, original version, French subtitles
Ghost Strata
2019, 16 mm, black and white and colour, sound, 46 mins, original version, French subtitles
The Shape of Things
2016, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 2 mins, original version, French subtitles
Things is a travel story where the filmmaker guides the viewer through the four seasons, without them ever having to leave home. Parallels and associations are established; a complex network of clues describes a life that is left to the viewer to unravel. Taking the form of a diary kept over the course of one year, Ghost Strata explores the different scales of the impact of the human presence on Earth over the past, present, and future. Found sounds and texts shape a meditation on time, memory, remains, and extinction. “Ghost strata” are a reference to the missing elements in rock strata which, despite their absence, provide a glimpse into what was once there.