Grand Canal & Mon Œil!

Abstract

Jean-Paul Fargier has been the referent of video art in France thanks mainly
to their articles published in Cahiers du Cinema and teaching developed at the University
of Vincennes. Fargier is the author of a monography on Nam June Paik and of a book on
Bill Viola; also he is currently the prolific director of dozens of documentaries made for
television. His text accurately tells the effervescence of militant video in the 70s and its
evolution to the 90s. The 70s saw the flowering of collective videographers committed
to political and union struggles. Strikes, demonstrations, pamphlets, manifestos...because
that’s how it all began in France, for political cinema. From cinema to video, there was
only a step, facilitated by the low weight, low cost and effectiveness of the video. Then political discourse gave way to another form of protest: the dominant televisual language. The
new challenge was to invent new forms, new aesthetics. To prevent anything being deleted,
it was necessary to give the names, the dates, the projects, the complicity, the conflicts.
Everything is there. Undeniable.