March 6 – April 21, 2025

OnView – Togetherness

film series

OnView is a new series at the PalaisPopulaire: each spring and fall, the museum will showcase films by international artists around a specific theme, spanning up to six weeks. The first edition brings together six works under the title Togetherness.

The theme of "togetherness" encompasses concepts such as cohesion, solidarity, agreement, and unity. Curated by Sara Bernshausen, the program presents films by Trisha Brown, Cao Fei, Cinthia Marcelle, Rene Matić, Marco Perego, and Koki Tanaka that offer various perspectives on questions of community, belonging, family, social bonds, and trust. What holds us together and makes us part of a community? What must individuals contribute to ensure the functioning of that community?

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Curated by Sara Bernshausen, Deputy Director PalaisPopulaire

Total: 2 hours 25 minutes

Screening order:

Cinthia Marcelle, Leitmotiv, Brazil, 2012

The work Leitmotiv from 2012 can be seen as an introduction to the Togetherness series—a metaphor for the roles of individuals in a democratic society. For this film, Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle asked a group of cleaners to wipe water across the floor in such a way that a swirl forms within the rectangular field of view of the camera. The water remains in the center only if everyone works together, wiping with equal force from all sides. As soon as one or more participants ease up, the water runs off. All involved are equally responsible for maintaining the fragile form.

Color video with stereo sound
4:16 min
Courtesy of the Artist and Sprovieri Gallery, London

Koki Tanaka, A Haircut by 9 Hairdressers at Once (Second Attempt), 2010

The starting point for Koki Tanaka’s A Haircut by 9 Hairdressers at Once (Second Attempt), 2010, is also a performance. The film is part of a series of experiments in which Tanaka brings people together to work collectively on a single task. In this case, nine hairdressers attempt to cut the hair of just one model at the same time. Throughout the process, participants must set aside their individual ideas, approaches, and habits to explore what can be accomplished together. This open-ended experiment also serves as a documentation of social interaction.

HD video with sound
28:14 min
Courtesy of the Artist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou and Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo

Rene Matić, Many Rivers, 2022

The title of Rene Matić's Many Rivers, 2022, already hints at the theme: many different rivers become one stream. The film is a deeply personal and moving portrait of Matić’s father. The longing to belong to a community, whether social or familial, is a central theme of the work. The film focuses on the racial and class barriers that defined British social life in the postwar period.

HD video with sound
30:00 min
Courtesy of the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London

Trisha Brown, Leaning Duets, 1970

The film Leaning Duets captures Trisha Brown's 1970 performance of the same name on the streets of New York’s Soho district. In her choreographies, Brown often recontextualizes everyday movements through carefully executed, repetitive gestures. Leaning Duets shows five couples who can only move or take steps forward in unison with one another; together, they achieve a balance rooted in trust.

16mm film transferred to high-definition video (black and white, silent)
2:21 min
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired in part through the generosity of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Sarah Arison, Jody & John Arnhold, and Agnes Gund, 2019
© 2024 Trisha Brown. Courtesy of the Estate of Trisha Brown and the Trisha Brown Dance Company

Marco Perego, Dovecote, 2024

Dovecote, 2024, by Marco Perego, which premiered in the Vatican Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, is an almost wordless film set in the women’s prison Giudecca in Venice. The camera follows the release of an inmate, marking her farewell to a community. The loss of familiarity, affection, closeness, and solidarity casts a shadow over the uncertain future of freedom as an individual.

Cao Fei, Asia One, 2018

Cao Fei’s 2018 film Asia One can also be seen as a study of social relationships. Set in the near future, it focuses on the only two people employed at the vast, fully automated logistics center "Asia One Unmanned Warehouse." Initially, the couple seems to feel closer to the machines and an AI robot assistant than to each other in this highly efficient environment. Asia One is part musical, part love story, offering a sometimes humorous exploration of human interaction in a digitalized world.