56 minutes, Super-8mm, asynchronous soundtrack, 1975
This film expresses the collage aspect of conceptual art. It begins with narration describing an imaginary memory of an Israeli artist who left Israel and went to Paris, and the title being read aloud: “Paris, 12.05.1975, Israeli Art”. This opening arouses questions regarding autobiographical aspects of the story, since Garbuz is a known Francophile, and his yearning for Europe and Paris as the cradle of culture is common knowledge. Playing in the background is Édith Piaf performing Sous le ciel de Paris (“Under Paris Skies”), which seemingly enables viewers to relax, to anticipate a moving romantic story. However, the film does not create a narrative, but breaks into almost randomly connected scenes. Garbuz himself appears in the film, but he functions as a performer engaged in collecting and counting an inventory of ideas, notes, scraps of paper, and so on. His figure facilitates reflective observation of the interfusion of cultural fields of discourse, as he talks about love of cinema, poetry, and literature. He reveals the means of creation, his camera presents the microphone within the filmed frame, the microphone emits the sounds of the camera, and he himself is photographed examining raw film materials, and performing editing actions.
Later, the film presents documentation of a critique of student works at HaMidrasha – Faculty of the Arts. On the soundtrack, viewers can hear Raffi Lavi, Ran Shechori, and Garbuz himself talking about art and analyzing paintings. In the filmed materials, the faithful, eagerly attentive eyes of the students are quite striking. The analysis of the students’ paintings continues in the dark while the film reel is changed in the camera.
Actor and director Yossi Pollak took part in making the film, and two stories that he created are interwoven into it, filmed in a mix of black-and-white and color in the alleys of Jaffa, and featuring him. The film also features quotations from old films. They are filmed being projected onto a glass screen, blurred and flickering, and there are additional distortions since the celluloid is old and full of holes. Despite all this, they still convey the image and the story, and have not become devoid of their content, or turned into mere formal signifiers. The film also includes television excerpts, and at its conclusion Garbuz recites, with great pathos, a glossary of terms associated with the world of art and artistic endeavor, such as the names of contemporary art movements, and concludes with the word “cinema” and a dark frame. It seems that thus he elucidates and frames the viewing experience.
Written by Yael Gesser
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
