Visions fugitives: Animation as Memory and Fantasy at Le Fresnoy

The exhibition 'Visions fugitives' at Le Fresnoy - Studio des arts contemporains in Tourcoing, running from February 11 to April 15, 2012, explores animated film as a medium for memory, fantasy, and the passage of time. Curated by Sarah Ihler-Meyer, the show features works that use drawn or digital animation to evoke fragmented recollections and dreamlike visions. Robert Breer's 'Fuji' (1974) recreates his hazy memories of Japan through rhythmic jumps and overlapping images, characteristic of American experimental cinema of the 1960s-70s. Jan Kopp's 'Tourniquet' (2009) captures impressions from a residency in Rouen with shaky lines and grayscale variations. William Kentridge's 'Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old' (1991) intertwines the personal story of developer Soho Eckstein with the end of apartheid in South Africa. Kelly Richardson's 'Exiles of the Shattered Star' (2006) presents a tranquil apocalypse with falling meteorites in a timeless digital landscape. Alexandra Crouwers' 'Practical Applied Hermetics Volume III' (2009-2012) immerses viewers in computer-generated flora set to psychedelic music. Laurent Pernot's 'Chronorama' (2007) features a ghost ship reflected on an artificial sea behind a fan-blown veil. The exhibition presents animation as a constellation of possibilities, bridging abstraction and figuration.