Jesper Just's Cinematic Installations at Mac/Val

From October 22, 2011 to February 5, 2012, Mac/Val in Vitry-sur-Seine presented an exhibition of films by Danish artist Jesper Just. The centerpiece is "This Nameless Spectacle," a cinematic installation with two 19-meter panoramic screens facing each other. Viewers sit in the middle, mentally editing the film by shifting their gaze between screens. The film depicts a man and a woman fleeing through Paris's Buttes-Chaumont park in summer, exploring desire, voyeurism, and death. Without dialogue, Just creates a visually striking work that questions subjectivity. Five additional films in smaller projection rooms complement the installation, featuring recurring actors and consistent attention to framing, image, sound, and music. In "A Voyage in Dwelling" (2008), a woman trapped in a blue corridor contorts to convey a mental state between dream and madness. "A Vicious Undertow" (2007) shows Benedikte Hansen climbing a high staircase in snowy night, nearly falling like a star. Just's work references Ingmar Bergman, Marguerite Duras, Alfred Hitchcock, and David Lynch, creating elliptical cinematic tales.