Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda, 3 moving images. 3 rhythms. 3 sounds, 2018. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Thierry Bal 

Agnès Varda, Ulysse (film still), 1982. Image courtesy the artist

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Legendary French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda presents her first commission in the UK for Liverpool Biennial 2018.

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and FACT, 3 moving images. 3 rhythms. 3 sounds is a three-channel video installation, whose varying speeds stimulate a reflection on temporality and the rhythm of human life. It combines extracts from three of Varda’s films: Documenteur (1981), Vagabond (1985) and The Gleaners (2000). Though created over a long time period, all three films portray individuals in society through poetic images. Together with 3 moving images. 3 rhythms. 3 sounds, Varda presents Ulysse, consisting of her short 1982 film of that name and a photograph she took in 1954. The film raises questions about the impact of images on our collective and individual memory, as well as the nature of the filmic medium itself. Finally, 5 reveurs is a large-scale photographic installation.

Agnès Varda’s presentation is accompanied by a weekly film programme. Throughout the Biennial, FACT and Picturehouse present weekly screenings of the works of Varda, and a personally curated set of films to accompany her own. 

Agnès Varda (b. 1928, Brussels, Belgium) lives and works in Paris, France. Varda studied art history at the École du Louvre and took night classes in photography. With no film training, she wrote and directed La pointe courte (1954), considered the beginning of French New Wave filmmaking. Le bonheur (Happiness) (1965) won Silver Bear at Berlin Film Festival and Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond) (1985) was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The Beaches of Agnès (2008) won a César Award for Best Documentary Film. She also won the Palme d’Or d’Honneur at Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Faces Places (2017) co-directed with French artist JR won L’Oeil d’Or at Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the 90th Academy Awards. In 2017, she also received an Honorary Award at the Governors Awards.

Previous exhibitions include Blum & Poe, New York City, USA (2017); Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2016); LACMA, Los Angeles, USA (2013–14); Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France (2006); and 50th Venice Biennale, Italy (2003).

Agnès Varda at Liverpool Biennial 2018

3 moving images. 3 rhythms. 3 sounds, 2018
Three channel video, 6:00 min
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and FACT
Exhibited at FACT

Ulysse, 1954
Photographic print
Exhibited at FACT

Ulysse, 1982
Video, 22:00 min
Exhibited at FACT

5 Rêveurs (5 Dreamers), 2012
Photographic print
Exhibited at FACT