The works brought together in the exhibition “False Friends / An Ephemeral Video Library” present micro-narratives articulated around personal experiences, anecdotes or testimony. Situated on the margins of mainstream history and reportage, they show historical reality in a different light and offer readings that are complementary, singular, marginal and inventive.
This project echoes the advent of alternative modes of access to information – digital platforms, blogs, new communications networks — Whether documentaries, fictions, chronicles, tales or true-fiction, the 24 videos by artists from all around the world forming this selection of “False Friends” do not attempt to offer a standard or conventional description of reality, nor do they set out to mediate or simplify it so as to make it easier to grasp. Rather, they tend to present a fragmented, subtle vision through stories about secondary figures.
Alternatively humorous, nostalgic or tense, they help to shake up convictions and preconceived ideas. Imperfect translations of events in which we can still hear echoes of reality, these “false friends” nevertheless have undeniable authenticity.