by Rivaz, Michel de; Byars, James Lee
Title[Après documenta V]
Item typeProjected medium
Alternate titleAprès documenta 5
Author(s)
  • Rivaz, Michel de
  • Byars, James Lee
LanguageNo linguistic content
URLLink to original record
Notes
  • Running time at 16 fps is 7:44.
  • Pacific Film Archive collection; non-circulating. Access by appt. only. CBPF
  • PFA 8000-121-16511. Restricted: Archival. Not for research or exhibition.
Physical description1 film reel (7 min., 44 sec.) : silent, color, 16 fps ; 8 mm
Date text: 
Author: 
Rivaz, Michel deByars, James Lee
Publisher: 
Subject headings: 

Item Type:

Millenium MARC Record: 
LEADER 00000ngmaa2200409Ki 4500 001 966433355 003 OCoLC 005 20161219114350.0 007 mr cf||an|aot|||c|||||| 008 161219s1972 sz 008 mlzxx d 040 CUY|beng|erda|cCUY 245 00 [Après documenta V] /|c[film by Michel de Rivaz]. 246 3 Après documenta 5 257 Switzerland. 264 0 [Switzerland] :|b[James Lee Byars?],|c[1972]. 300 1 film reel (7 min., 44 sec.) :|bsilent, color, 16 fps ; |c8 mm 306 000744 336 two-dimensional moving image|btdi|2rdacontent 337 projected|bg|2rdamedia 338 film reel|bmr|2rdacarrier 340 |joriginal reversal positive 500 Running time at 16 fps is 7:44. 506 Pacific Film Archive collection; non-circulating. Access by appt. only.|5CBPF 506 PFA 8000-121-16511. Restricted: Archival. Not for research or exhibition. 511 0 Performer, James Lee Byars. 520 "James Lee Byars found his 'perfect audience' on a sunny summer afternoon in 1972 on the ground beneath the Zytglogge, a fifteenth-century clock tower in Bern, Switzerland. At the invitation of Swiss curator Harald Szeemann, Byars had performed Calling German Names at Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany, earlier that summer. Szeemann, the young director of Documenta, revolutionized the event by inviting artists to present not just paintings and sculptures, but also performances and 'happenings.' Byars repeated his performance in Bern, where the action was captured on film by local filmmaker Michel de Rivaz. Recently digitally remastered, the film Après Documenta 5 is presented for the first time in an American museum in the exhibition The Perfect Audience. The seven-minute film opens with Byars in the apex of the Fridericianum, on the Documenta exhibition grounds, and then moves to Bern. With dizzying camera moves, Byars appears atop the clock tower, shrouded in red, calling German names through a golden megaphone to a perplexed crowd on the ground below. Later we see Byars exiting the house where Albert Einstein lived between 1903 and 1905 as he developed the Special Theory of Relativity; at the site, Byars dedicated his performance to the legendary scientist. The film concludes with art-world types, including the artist, Szeemann, and others, sipping aperitifs and soaking in the sun in an outdoor cafe. Byars had a way of bringing a bourgeois air to radical art, redefining the concept of hot fun in the summertime"-- Stephanie Cannizzo, Berkeley Art Museum. 541 0 |3PFA 8000-121-16511. |aD0121 |cdeposit |d 2014/02/12 |5CBPF 590 PFA 8000-121-16511.|aOriginal reversal positive. 650 0 Performance art. 651 0 Bern (Switzerland) 655 7 Short films.|2lcgft 655 7 Filmed performances.|2lcgft 700 1 Rivaz, Michel de,|d1920-|erecordist,|efilm director. 700 1 Byars, James Lee,|eperformer. 956 20161219 |bpfmcq|cCO 957 OCLC xref loaded 20170108 994 C0|bCUY