Now Here Then Elsewhere

Now Here Then Elsewhere
a solo exhibition by Eric Baudelaire
Educational
Worksheet
Still image fromThe Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi
and 27 Years Without Images
Chanson d’automne
Chanson d’automne Is an assemblage of newspaper clippings from the Wall Street Journal. The artist has drawn circles around
words that make up a stanza from a poem by Paul Verlaine. Eric Baudelaire extracts a new narrative structure from the text. The new
structure is diametrically opposed to the one in the text which also predicts a global economic meltdown. Baudelaire is therefore
making a commentary on the media’s tendency to exaggerate and dramatize particular events. This process of selecting certain words
also brings to mind strategies of encryption used to transmit messages between allies in times of war.
Why would you consider this assemblage a work of art?
Create your own cryptic message from this text.
How does Chanson d’Automne relate to other works in the exhibition?
Who is the author of this film?
Memory of Enigma (2013)
Memory of Enigma Is a video installation consisting of a
film in production as well as documents that are in relation
to the process. The script is written by Masao Adachi, the
film is interpreted and produced by Eric Baudelaire.
In contrast with the Anabasis, Memory of Enigma is a work
of fiction. Eric Baudelaire is interested in exploring the
biographical and documentary potentials in fiction. To this
end, filming the movie follows a particular course. Produced
away from Adachi, the movie evolves in an experimental
fashion where not everything is controlled.
French artist Eric Baudelaire traces the history of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) in the Palestinian camps of
Lebanon in Now Here Then Elsewhere, a solo exhibition of films, photographs and documents.
A little bit of history…
The Japanese Red Army is a Japanese armed
faction of the extreme left influenced by Marxist–
Leninist thought that was founded by Fusako
Shigenobu in 1971.
The objective of the JRA was to mobilize for a
greater political representation in Japan, fight
against imperialism, promote communism, and
internationalize the revolution of the left. In the
mid-sixties a new generation of student activists
emerges in Japan. They plan actions to stop
the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security
between the United States and Japan, as well
as Japan’s support for the US war in Vietnam. In
1970 as the treaty is about to become official,
student movements turn to armed struggle. In
order to export the revolution, Fusako Shigenobu
relocates to Beirut in 1971, where she joins the
Marxist organization, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). From Lebanon, the
JRA organizes and engages in a number of attacks,
most famously are the shootings at Lod Airport (in
occupied Palestine) and the attack on the French
embassy in the Hague in 1974. Even tough the
group was very active during the 70s, the story of
the JRA continues to be ignored. And through this
project Eric Baudelaire, sheds some light on this
part of history.
The protagonists
Fusako Shigenobu. Born in 1945 in Tokyo. She is the founder
of the JRA. She had been the number one public enemy of
Japan over a period of three decades. From 1971 to 1982
Shigenobu was residing in Beirut, the base from which she
launched attacks in support of her cause. In 2000 she was
arrested, and had been incarcerated in Japan to this day.
Masao Adachi. Born in 1939 in Fukuoka, Japan, Adachi is a
filmmaker who became a revolutionary militant in Beirut. He
produced radical, political films that sympathize with student
activism in Japan during the 60s.
May Shigenobu. Born on the first of March in 1973 in
Lebanon, she is the daughter of Fusako Shigenobu and a
Palestinian militant.
«Anabasis» is used to describe a period of «uncertain
wandering and without guide» through unknown and dangerous
lands that ends when one returns to the native land. The term
necessarily covers the notions of «return» but also «novelty,» since
it is a return that will open to a new future.
The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi, and 27 Years Without Images (2011)
Is a video installation that consists of a film and documentation including a libretto, family photographs of Fusako Shigenobu,
slides of Masao Adachi’s prison drawings, excerpts from A.K.A Serial Killer by Masao Adachi, and serigraphies of pictures of documents.
is a documentary that records the testimonies of May
Shigenobu and Masao Adachi on the years of the
Japanese Red Army’s militantism in Lebanon. Voiceovers of May and Adachi overlay images of contemporary
Beirut and Tokyo that were shot using a super 8mm
filmstrip.
What is so strange about this documentary when you
compare it to other documentaries that you have seen?
According to you, why did Baudelaire choose to film
contemporary Beirut and Tokyo using a super 8mm
filmstrip?
i
2. Documentation
Still image from The Anabasis of May and Fusako, Masao Adachi and
27 years without images.
The following documents accompany the film:
Masao Adachi Prison Drawings
A libretto is presented in the form of an information booklet that
is intended for the viewer. It contains a chronology on the lives
of Masao Adachi, May and Fusako Shigenobu. In this way, the
libretto serves as a documentation to the film.
Masao Adachi was arrested and imprisoned in Lebanon over a
period of three years. He spent his time drawing in his prison cell.
Would you consider the libretto to be part of the artwork?
In the Anabasis (the film) you will see images of Fusako Shigenobu
and other members of the Japanese Red Army that were circulated in
the media. How are the images here different?
i Photography and Criminology
In the 19th century photography became widely used by the
police. The “mug shot” was also invented in that period.
Alphonse Bertillon, a French criminologist and photographer
started to research the ways in which photography can play
a role in detecting potential suspects. In 1870 he founded
the first police laboratory to identify criminals, and invented
judiciary anthropometry which consists of defining the facial
features of criminals (later Jews, mentally ill, tubercular, etc.).
These features were captured in photographs, catalogued, and
consulted in order to arrest not only criminals but also what the
police considered the ‘undesired types.’
1. The film (which has the same title as the installation)
Super 8mm filmstrip was released in 1960. It
creates an image that has a grainy surface. At one
point in the past “super 8 cameras” were widespread and especially popular with families, who
had, for the first time, the possibility to personally
record ordinary and special moments from their
lives.
Fusako Shigenobu Family Album
Eric Baudelaire takes photographs from Fusako Shigenobu’s family
album, and displays them on the upper part of a white board. Even
though he did not take these photographs himself, what do you learn
from the way he has positioned them?
Fusako Shigenobu Family Album
Pictures of Documents
In 1953, the artist Robert Rauschenberg produces a work titled
Erased De Kooning Drawing. In this work the artist has literally erased
the artist’s painting, effectively raising a question on the importance
of the material object in art.
In this case the images are not erased but covered. As serigraphies
these pictures of documents are barely visible. They are ‘missing
images,’ just like the title of the installation suggests “27 Years
Without Images.”
Would you say that the image persists in spite of everything?
If your answer is yes, then how would you interpret the resistance of
the image?
A photograph of members of the Japanese Red Army that was
circulating in the media.
Look closely at the drawings, what and why did Masao Adachi
draw while in prison?
Fusako Shigenobu
Excerpt of A.K.A. Serial killer by Masao Adachi
“The best form of propaganda is armed struggle”
Masao Adachi
A.K.A Serial Killer was released in 1968. This documentary
discusses the story of a young man who, for no obvious reason,
assassinates four people. The documentary seeks to expose the
causes of this act by turning to the city and the ways in which it
is alienating. In this sense the film contextualizes the birth of the
Japanese Red Army. The documentary was produced two years
before Adachi joined in armed struggle. While the Anabasis deals
with Masao Adachi as a militant, A.K.A Serial Killer reveals him as
a revolutionary filmmaker.
Why is A.K.A Serial Killer a part of this project?
Robert Rauschenberg, Erased De Kooning Drawing, 1953
i Serigraphy Is a printing technique that originated in China,
and was later exported to Japan. It consists of adding a layer of silk
between the ink and the surface to print on. This technique allows a
fast production of images. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used
this technique in several of their works to evoke the relatively recent
mass production of images.
A serigraphy