Lucile Desamory is interested in the frontiers of perception, in the „too much“, the esoteric, the falsified – in the spurned narratives. This interest in marginal phenomena always requires to change the medium. She makes films, collages, photos and music, she paints, draws and embroiders. She combines these techniques into larger forms such as installations, films, radio plays and live performances. For Alias she developed two pieces, VU DE L’EXTÉRIEUR and MESSAGES, both conceived in relation to production of the feature film TÉLÉ RÉALITÉ co-directed with Glodie Mubikay and Gustave Fundi that will premiere early 2020. With this film Lucile, Glodie and Gustave create a tunnel. They open up other possibilities of engagement, a carnaval of common narratives, a telepathic channel. Filmed both in Kinshasa and Belgium, the story tells the preparations for a reality tv show taking place during the Belgian carnaval. The show is funded and produced by a Congolese television station that wants to commit a media coup.

With the installation VU DE L’EXTÉRIEUR the artist reflects on the possibilities of a distant view from inside the own culture. The inside is Belgium and its cultural codes. With the installation a situation is created where inside and outside are obscured. The installation consists of a white box with a hidden entrance in the screen, only visible in some moments while the video is running. The video itself is part of TÉLÉ RÉALITÉ directed by Glodie Mubikay and Gustave Fundi. It shows three Congolese women discussing a reality tv show they plan during the Belgian Carnaval. When the visitor enters the video screen, he/she finds himself in a secret chamber with a surveillance monitor. On it, strange characters evolve in the house where the Blancs Moussis of Stavelot make and store tons and tons of confettis.

MESSAGES on the other hand recapitulates on the years of work with the producers of O2 Studios Glodie Mubikay and Gustave Fundi on the production of the feature film TÉLÉ RÉALITÉ. Being based in different continents, they never met in person though worked together via media such as Messenger and Youtube. Lucile Desamory selected moments in their conversations and painted them with gouache on long rolls of paper as a way of slowing down and materialising the communication.

Credits:
MESSAGES (2019), gouache on paper, 3x(10m x 50cm). Courtesy Lucile Desamory.
VU DE L’EXTÉRIEUR (2019), video installation, collaboration with Gustave Fundi and Glodie Mubikay, mixed media. Courtesy Lucile Desamory. Dialogues: Damien Desamory, Gustave Fundi and Glodie Mubikay. Music and sound mix: Nicholas Bussmann. Editor films: Sophie Watzlawick; Assistant: Leo Guinet. Film in RDC: Sequences directed by Gustave Fundi and Glodie Mubikay. Actors: Ursule Mpaka, Hornella Mukeba, Belord Mulopo, Esther Ngalula, Antho Sifu, Doursi Tshipungidi, Rachel Vungbo. Director of Photography: Erick Kayembe. Sound: Caleb Kayeye. Film in Belgium: Actors: Artur Castro Freire, Felisa Cereceda, Lucile Desamory, Ruth Lehmann, Arnaud Liesse, Hawaly Ndayisenga, Inga Padurari, Lionel Perrinjaquet, Laura Pirard, Johan Van der Maat. Assistant director: Jen Debauche. Director of photography: Artur Castro Freire. Assistant director of photography: Félix Moy. B Camera operator: Nikos Welter. Latex head by Odile Desamory. Doors by Lucy McKenzie, Josefine Reisch and Alison Yip. Produced by Netwerk Aalst, O2 Studios (Kinshasa), Goethe-Institut (Kinshasa), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Mu.ZEE (Ostend), Beursschouwburg (Brussels), Ni Vu Ni Connu (Luxemburg), Collection de Bruin-Heijn (Amsterdam), PBC Pictures (Brussels), Belfilm.