Entitled In the (Commercial) Break, this screening is dedicated to American artist Martine Syms. Rarely shown in France, her video works tackle topical questions such as the future-screen of contemporary social life, the constant staging of the self, the meme-ification of the real, and the dominant/dominated relationships, while inscribing and extending the history of American visual culture, notably through the examination of black representations.

The screening brings together recent videos by Martine Syms, from the Lessons corpus, as well as a selection of works emblematic of her visual and political universe produced by artists with whom she is close. All of them stage the—complex—production of identities and images in our contemporary world. Lessons, the heart of the session, is a set of 30-second "clips," developed by Martine Syms since 2014. Using YouTube videos, television excerpts, and personal recordings, she shows, in a deliberately fragmentary and indirect way, the daily life of African-American communities.

Program:
– Kevin Jerome Everson, Century, 2012, 7'. Courtesy the artist; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures
– Martine Syms, Lesson XC, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Sondra Perry, studio test, NO NO NO, 2013, 2'15. Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
– Rami George, Untitled (Saturday, October 16, 1993), 2015, 5'. Courtesy of the Artist
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCI, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Wu Tsang, Girl Talk, 2015, 4'. KADIST Collection, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
– Tiona Nekkia McClodden, The Labryinth 1.0, 5'38. Courtesy of the artist
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCII, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Irena Haiduk, Nine Hour Delay:Printemps-Ete-Automne-Hiver 2058, 2013, 2'7. Courtesy of the artist
– Hannah Black, The Fall of Communism, 2014, 5'23. Courtesy of the artist
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCIII, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Nicole Miller, The Borrowers (Ndinda), 2015, 3'40. Courtesy of the artist
– Ed Owens, Remembrance: A Portrait Study, 1967, 6'. Courtesy of the artist and Film Makers' Cooperative, New York
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCIV, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Diamond Stingily, Sandra's Walk, 2016, 1'. Courtesy of the artist
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCV, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist
– Allie Avital, Moses Sumney: Worth It?, 2016, 3'23. Courtesy of the artist
– Ximena Cuevas, Contemporary Artist, 1999, 4'57. Courtesy of the artist and Video Databank, Chicago
– Martine Syms, Lesson XCVI, 2018, 30''. Courtesy of the artist