Artist

Johan Grimonprez

Belgian filmmaker/artist Johan Grimonprez caused an international stir with his first feature dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997) after its premiere at Documenta X. An exploration into media's mutating collusion with mass perception, this dizzying chronicle of airplane hijacking eerily foreshadowed the events of 9/11.

His recent feature
Double Take (2009) questions how our view of reality is held hostage by mass media, advertising, and Hollywood. Written by award-winning British novelist Tom McCarthy, the film targets the global rise of fear-as-commodity in a tale of odd couples and hilarious double deals. Grimonprez's work is an inspired media archaeology that can be envisioned as both the joyful affirmation of a global disengagement, as well as the catalyst of effervescent criticism.

Traveling the main festival circuit from the Berlinale to Sundance, his critically acclaimed films have garnered Best Director Awards and were acquired by NBC UNIVERSAL, Arte, and Channel 4. In addition, his works are part of the permanent collections of the Tate Modern and the Centre Georges Pompidou, as well as having been exhibited worldwide. In 2011 Hatje/Cantz published a reader on his work called It’s
A Poor Sort Of Memory That Only Works Backwards.

Artist Code: 101

Videography

Three Thoughts on Terror

2018, 05:00 minutes, colour, English, Urdu

Two Travellers to a River 

2018, 01:00 minutes, colour, Arabic, with English subtitles

blue orchids

2017, 48:00 minutes, colour, English, with French, Dutch, subtitles

Raymond Tallis on tickling

2017, 08:00 minutes, colour, English, with Dutch, Greek subtitles

kiss-o-drome

2016, 01:00 minutes, B&W, Spanish, with English, French subtitles

every day words disappear

2016, 15:00 minutes, Colour, English vers., French vers., with subtitles in: English, French, Dutch, Spanish, German, and Greek

from SATIN ISLAND

2015, 03:00 minutes, Colour, English, Spanish subtitles

What I Will

2013, 01:11 minutes, Colour, English

I may have lost forever my umbrella

2011, 02:53 minutes, colour, Portuguese with English subtitles

...because Superglue is forever

2011, 12:00 minutes, colour, English with Dutch subtitles

Double Take

2009, Colour, English

Looking for Alfred

2005, 10:00 minutes, colour, English

Lost Nation, January 1999

1999, 20:00 minutes, colour/B&W

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

1997, 68:00 minutes, colour/B&W

Besmette Stad

1994, 18:00 minutes, colour, French, English (with Dutch, English subtitles)

Kobarweng or Where is Your Helicopter?

1992, 24:00 minutes, colour/B&W, English text

Critical Writing

Curatorial Incubator v. 16: Living in Hope
by Lisa Steele. Toronto: Vtape, 2021.
Television, Outmoded Technologies, and the Work of Lana Lin
by Maeve Connolly. Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ), 2013, v. 2, no. 2.
AVENUE Questions and Artists: DRAWING ENEMY LINES
by Leah Sandals. National Post, Jan. 17, 2008.
Violent signals: Inspired by war in the age of terror, this...
by Jade Colbert. The Varsity, Jan. 17, 2008.
Pumping up the Volume of Art
by Blake Gopnik. The Globe and Mail, Aug. 19, 1999.
dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y
by Wilson Lee. Lola, Winter 1999, no. 5.
High-concept filmmaking on a low budget
by Robert Everett-Green. The Globe and Mail, Apr. 24, 1998.
Art of the Moment, Here to Stay
by Roberta Smith. The New York Times, Feb. 15, 1998.
Johan Grimonprez: Dial History
by Roberta Smith. The New York Times, Sept. 12, 1997.