La Mer

The French artist Ange Leccia (b. 1952) was born in Corsica, and the unique position of the island has always fascinated him as a creative metaphor for the limits of time and space. He began to work with cinematography as an art form early in the 1980s, and his efforts have left their mark on the growth of the video medium in French contemporary art. Leccia is the founder and head of the  artist-in-residence program and research lab Pavillon Neuflize OBC of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. His works have been exhibited in key institutions including Documenta Kassel, Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennial, Skulptur Projekte Münster, Centre Georges Pompidou.

Lecciaʼs video art relies on visual repetitions, intense colours, music and the effect of silence. He utilises the full potential of digital technology, using his own store of images to create a compelling narrative that is based on clips and sound montages from film scores and popular music. Lecciaʼs installations draw the viewer into the independent existence of the cinematographic image. He leads the viewer into a visual confrontation and the merciless violence of the image, yet at the same time into a world that could be called the realm of aesthetics, where the viewer perceives an existence beyond language.

La Mer (The Sea) is Lecciaʼs best-known work, which he repeatedly transforms and adapts to each exhibition space. It shows the Corsica of his youth, the sea that he films over and over, constantly using new technology. The passing time is displayed as a series of still frames, or a rapid sequence of moments, ever flowing like the waves that break on the shore, like a repeated chant with no beginning, middle or end.

La Mer - Photo: Ange Leccia ADAGP - 2014