Natacha Nisic
Rather Die Than Die (DVD) Distribution Les Presses du Réel, Paris
Plunged into a deep psychosis in 1918, Aby Warburg emerged from his madness thanks to a lecture he gave on the snake ritual of the Hopi Indians. It is at the heart of this madness that the film weaves links between the aftermath of the Great War and a possible cure.
Artist Natacha Nisic sets out to trace the footsteps of World War I by intertwining two stories, two civilizations, but also two intimate experiences of time and suffering. The first is that of the North American Indians, and more particularly the Hopis, most of whom were volunteers who fought from 1917 to 1918 on the Picardy and Somme fronts. The second is an archaeology of everyday suffering recounted in the clinical diary kept by German art historian Aby Warburg, heir to a Jewish banking family, who traded his share of the inheritance for the opportunity to build a library. Throughout the months of the war, Warburg collected hundreds, thousands of images and texts in order to understand the ideological underpinnings of the deadly conflict. He lost his mind in the process.
This film is a symphony in the image of Aby Warburg, a film-manifesto in both form and content. It is accompanied by a booklet with two texts, one by Natacha Nisic and the other by Annette Becker, a historian specializing in the study of war violence.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and led by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques as part of the centenary commemorations of the First World War, this film is listed in the inventories of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain.
The DVD has been awarded the First World War Centenary label.
Natacha Nisic (born in 1967 in France) continually explores the invisible, even magical, relationship between images, words, interpretation, symbolism, and ritual. Her work blends narratives from the past and present to reveal the complexities of the relationship between what is shown and what is hidden, what is spoken and what is left unsaid. Her still and moving images function as substrates of memory, a memory torn between its value as evidence and its loss. Natacha Nisic has exhibited in France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Korea, and Argentina.
Film by Natacha Nisic.Texts by Natacha Nisic and Annette Becker. Published with the Centre national des arts plastiques. Edited by Gilles Coudert. Released in January 2018. Bilingual edition (French/English)
DVD Digipack (DVD5 – PAL – MULTIZONE – AC3 Stereo – 16/9), 40-page booklet (b&w ill.) 66′
