Both commissioned by The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and premiering at the 59th Annual New York Film Festival (NYFF) as part of the ‘Currents’ section of films, La Nature is Armenian director Artavazd Peleshian's first feature film in 27 years and Andrei Ujică's 2 Pasolini debuts 20 years after its initial creation. We briefly explore both as contributions to the story of aesthetics and the avant-garde.

Where The Avant-Garde Lives Today: Andrei Ujică's '2 Pasolini' and Artavazd Peleshian's 'La Nature' Premier at NYFF59

Today, the term 'avant-garde' is often derisively used as a stand-in for ‘a challenge’ or ‘different’. But mercifully, there are communities who still take this word seriously, and ‘avant-garde' is the right way to capture the essence of Ujica and Peleshian’s latest works in the most intellectual sense. Artavazd Peleshian's La Nature and Andrei Ujică's 2 Pasolini have commonality beyond their shared essence, particularly the fact they both use found footage to compose the visual, and, as Ujică stated at the premiere screening in New York City, are “true pieces of cinema as art". This means, to paraphrase, the intention lies nearer to aesthetic value than narrative value. It is the goal of the filmmaker to make only incidental the presence of the human touch. “This is, in the perfect sense, view of the camera only,” said Ujică during a Q&A session after the screening.

Given this abstract objective, the nature (sorry) of these footages are very different for the respective films. La Nature is composed of 15 years'-worth of material sourced from everywhere- from lush documentaries to pixelated YouTube uploads- while 2 Pasolini uses found footage from a singular Pier Paolo Pasolini work: Sopraluoghi in Palestina ([Location Hunting in Palestine], 1965) and is thus very much of a specific time and place. Sopraluoghi in Palestina ([Location Hunting in Palestine]) was a selection of footage documenting the location scouting for one of Pasolini’s masterpieces, 1964’s The Gospel According to Saint Matthew.

Briefly considering Andrei Ujică's 2 Pasolini

The original circumstance of 2 Pasolini's creation was an invitation by the The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain for Ujică to join a group exhibition which focused on artistic interpretations of the desert landscape. Initiated in 2000 but never finished, the COVID-19 pandemic gave Ujică the opportunity to return to the work and complete it to his satisfaction. The result is a brief but moving examination of a conflict between Christ and his critics, as well as Pasolini as an aestheticist, with clear neorealist influence by way of modern imagery (men in suits, cars, roads...) juxtaposed upon the immortal-feeling desert and its roaming, challenged inhabitants. It is important to note that Ujică has a significant body of work which deals with the downfall of communism in Russia, which provides context for Ujică’s comfort with uncertainty and societal tension (which Pasolini also found himself at the center of most of his career). While cues of this education and influence are present in 2 Pasolini, it's not necessary to have this history to enjoy the scenery and scenario and mild humor. That said, it can help a viewer to be informed of the mindset of Pasolini himself (a homosexual atheist) and the supported film's significance to Ujică, who claims, "The Gospel According to Saint Matthew is among the best-cast movies", featuring Pasolini's own mother as the Mary, the Mother of God.

*2 Pasolini (Still) © Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain*

From a purely aesthetic perspective, we can appreciate Ujică’s interest in preserving the mysticism of the desert, paired with the undulating, relentless movement of water on a sea. These elements, with audio of Jesus (or the sea) speaking to an audience offer viewers a stomach-churning experience. It is successful because many pieces of footage seem deeply improbable (particularly the ones over a shadowy sea and massive waves); a testament to craft.

Briefly Dissecting Artavazd Peleshian's La Nature

The feature length of Artavazd Peleshian's La Nature, however, is more direct in its artistic intention, with a storyline that is driven by its monumental visuals and sound in a technique perfected in 1975’s Vremena goda. Its historical context can be counted by the centuries or even epoch as La Nature is the story of two timezones: one is that of geological scale and two is that of human scale. Initiated 15 years ago by the Foundation, Nature is a continuation of Peleshian's interest in geological happenings and the cinema that can come with it (other works on the topic include The Seasons (1975) and Life (1993)). These happenings are usually characterized as ‘catastrophes’ for the humans that are encounter them.

*La Nature (Still) © Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain*

Peleshian’s practice is heavily influenced by the avant-garde montage filmmakers of early Russian cinema, and it is clear within La Nature that Peleshian’s commitment to the meaning is genuine. La Nature’s composition is nearly childlike in its obsession with catastophe. Individual natural phenomena are observed relentlessly and at all possible ways: cropped, zoomed, inverted, and replayed at countless angles. The booming sound of a thunderclap or a wave crashing is looped to maximize the awe-inspiring nature. This is carried through, even with unpredictable amateur footage dating back up to 15 years ago. Peleshian made no effort to remove pixelation, discoloration or artifacts in the found work, letting them add to the beauty of the whole.

Peleshian was recently subject to an exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.