Clément Cogitore at the BAL
Come and explore the exhibition of our first winner of the LE BAL AWARD FOR YOUNG CREATION WITH THE ADAGP.
LE BAL PRESENTS BRAGUINO OR THE IMPOSSIBLE COMMUNITY, A PROJECT BY CLÉMENT COGITORE, FIRST WINNER OF LE BAL AWARD FOR YOUNG CREATION WITH THE ADAGP.
Clément Cogitore visited Braguino in 2016, taken from the name of a family of "Old Believers" living in a handful of huts lost in the middle of the Taiga deep in the heart of Siberia, 700 km from the nearest village. He went to Braguino to try to solve the mystery of Sasha Braguine's drive to move to there with his family over thirty years ago, in the hope of living in peace, and constructing a completely self-sufficient lifestyle. However, very rapidly this paradise becomes the scene of an open battle between two families who cannot live side by side. This impossible community is the central axis of Clément Cogitore’s film, photo and sound work.
Plunged into darkness, the installation at LE BAL immerses the visitor in the heart of a narrative played out over several acts, each one a filmed fragment revealing another intrigue, and each with its own rhythm, place and action. From arriving in Braguino by helicopter, to Sacha’s dream, a bear hunt and the mysterious island where the children roam free, the fragments ultimately crescendo in the threat of armed conflict. The films throw us into a twilight world, as do the large, luminous photos in muted tones that track this journey.
With truly archaic dramaturgical prompts, Clément Cogitore evokes the conflictual tenets of the great myths. Braguino relates the experience of a two-pronged dilemma: to escape or stay put, to build something together, or destroy oneself. Far more than a mere ethnographical study, Clément Cogitore tells a cruel tale that echoes ‘the tipping point of our civilisation’. If this world is doomed to perish, what does its disappearance really symbolise?
— Diane Dufour and Léa Bismuth, exhibition curators
CLÉMENT COGITORE BIOGRAPHY
Clément Cogitore is a French artist whose film-making and photography explore the potent questions of how images are made and their active role in human constructions. He is the first winner of the LE BAL Prize for Young Talent, in association with ADAGP.