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‘Paris Autumn,’ at Chemould

The solo show of Pushpamala N., ‘in a cinematic installation,’ opened at Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai in November, 2009 with the screening of ‘Paris Autumn,’ an experimental short film created from still photographs and photo exhibition.

‘Paris Autumn,’ (created from still photographs / B&W 35 min, English, stereo sound, Sound Paris-India 2006/ screening ratio 4:3), is a work of fiction in the style of a gothic thriller, which tells the story of the artist's stay in Paris in the autumn of 2005. While she rents a room in one of the oldest streets in the Marais, strange happenings begin to occur. It was then she realises she is living in the outhouses of the mansion that had once belonged to Gabrielle d'Estrées, King Henri IV's favourite, who died, poisoned no doubt, at the age of twenty-six just as she was about to marry the king.

From that moment on, Pushpamala had to find out about this woman who had come to such a tragic end. Pushpamala's quest begins at the Louvre, opposite The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio and continues in the kitsch atmosphere of the Chapelle des Petits-Augustine. The action takes place at various points throughout Paris that Pushpamala, stroller and detective graced with the gift of ubiquity, assembles into a strange map with Haussmannian perspectives, where the Eiffel Tower and cafés follow images of urban violence. Pushpamala seems to read the world like a "complex and stratified, open and enigmatic" literary work that she makes up as she weaves her way through a mysterious urban territory where, right down to the flow of the images, we find the "halting" nature of the City according to Benjamin, like a succession of paintings put together with brushstrokes

Written, produced and directed by Pushpamala, the film was shot by her and Cedric Sartore, with editing and sound design by Sankalp Meshram. The cast includes, beside Pushpamala, Gabrielle Soyer, Cedric Vincent, Bernard and Gwenolee Zurcher, Cedric Sartore, and the People of Paris.

‘Paris Autumn,’ was premiered in the Galerie Zurcher in Paris as an installation with film and photographs in 2006, where the show got good reviews in ‘Le Monde’ and other leading French newspapers and magazines. It was later developed as a cinematic installation in the form of a movie theatre environment for Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi and Bose Pacia, New York. The film has been shown in the Video et Apres programme of the Centre Pompidou, the 4th Sguardi International Women’s Film Festival in Milan, the Bangalore International Film Festival and in numerous screenings in India and abroad.

The show will continue till December 9, at Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.

 - From A Correspondent.