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June 8, 1968 (short; Philippe Parreno, 2009)

Shot in 70mm and digitally projected on a massive screen […] Philippe Parreno’s haunting and sumptuous seven-minute film imaginatively re-enacts the train journey from New York to Washington carrying assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy’s coffin on June 8, 1968. The film is literally a series of tracking shots from the point of view of the train and the dead body within it. The enormous projection creates equivalence in scale between the audience looking at the mourners lining the tracks in silent witness, who in turn look back at the audience. [1]

In other words, this was one of the most stunningly gorgeous installations I’ve had the opportunity of witnessing; sumptuous and haunting being more-than-appropriate adjectives to describe this speculative and poetic flashback to one of America’s most illustrious passing. If in Montreal, see it (as well as the piece described below) until May 13th, 2012 @ the DHC/ART space (451 & 465, St-Jean) as part of their stunning Chronicles of a Disappearance exhibit, which looks at manifestations of the repressed and the disappeared, across social, political and personal realms.

January 27th
Tags: 2000s, 2009, installation, philippe parreno, robert kennedy, video art, short,