Filipa César was born in 1975 in Oporto, Portugal. She lives and works in Lisbon and Berlin. The body of work César has been producing has developed towards an investigation on human nature and its visualization through the lens (hidden or not) of a camera.
In her residency, Cesar filmed “The Four Chambered Heart” in which she tailored Jean Rouch’s 1959 film “The Human Pyramid” into the local Israeli context. Rouche’s film is, in his own words, an “experience” in between fiction and documentary, where he sought to initiate a debate between two groups of students from the Ivory Cost (a group of white students and a group of black students).
César put herself in Rouch’s place – the instigator who captures on film his characters’ reactions and emotions while probing whether they are acting or not. Instead of a group of black and a group of white students, the artist brought together a group of Arab and a group of Hebrew students from three cinema schools in Israel: Al manar Film School, in Taibe; Tel Aviv University, Department of Film and Television, in Tel Aviv; and Sapir Academic College, Department of Film and TV, in Sderot.
After watching the projection of Rouch’s film, they start discussing their viewing experience. They question the role of cinema, the role of the director, and each other’s positions. They even deconstruct the cinematic device they are themselves part of, pointing out the differences between Rouch’s and César’s experiment.
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