An idea of what happens inside is given outside

An idea of what happens inside is given outside. On the whole of the Central facade of the Grand Palace is projected to 31 December a giant installation made of words in motion. All is signed Charles Sandison, a Scottish artist who lives in Finland. Tourists are fascinated. Many stop to photograph these letters collide, to duplicate, climb and descend. They are drawn from the European. "In the night, images" celebrates big, for fifteen days, the end of the French Presidency of the Union.

The title of this operation illuminates little about its subject. The direction of the operation was entrusted to the artist, writer and Director of the Fresnoy in Tourcoing a school specializing in the Visual arts celebrates its ten years Alain Fleischer. The Interior is a huge maze of screens in various formats on which moving images are projected. The process is activated every day in the dark of the night, 17 hours until 1 hour in the morning and, is exceptional, entrance is free. This night wandering in a completely video world is exciting.

Good surprises

Among the 140 works offered to the visitor, some are available on screens of 16 9 metres. At the centre of the nave, a scaffolding which is the Belvedere to contemplate the futuristic panorama. The artists of the 27 countries of the European Community are presented. But not only. There are also Chinese, Americans... who may be students or teachers of le Fresnoy, or videographers chosen for the quality of their work.

Of course all the parts are not of equal quality. But there are number of good surprises. Spectacular: a screen of 24 metres in height which shows a fuzzy body, images of synthesis, and levitating choreography. They have been imagined by the Austrian and former Professor at le Fresnoy, Kurt Hentschlager. At the Grand Palais, there are many people levitating. New technologies released the bodies of gravity. Combattimento Durand, former student of Fresnoy, located in an Office a strange scene where men and women are shifting, and the balloon inflated with helium. Fun: the only Moldovan of the operation, Veaceslav Druta, shows characters darting toward the sky fast, apparently after having jumped on a trampoline. Among these beings powered, there are men, women and also a pig.

Almost hypnotic: the giant video of Fabien Giraud, former student of Fresnoy. He has filmed, clearly accelerated speed, a crowd in a concert of punk music. They frantically dance into a kind of general fight where the body moving and strangely fit. In William Kentridge the video projected by giant world renowned South African artist is not the fruit of high technology but of shadow puppets. Its Carnival is composed of characters drawn and cut, but also occasionally inspired by others, such as the Italian coffee turns into old farmer when the lid is closed.

The Portuguese of the operation is the famous and Centennial filmmaker Manuel de Oliveira who filmed an unlikely meeting of 2.5 minutes between the Pope and Khrushchev with, in the role title, Michel Piccoli. The generic of the operation includes also several stars such as Bill Viola, pioneer of the art video to large effects, Fischli & Weiss, Swiss working on an aesthetic fun trivial daily life, William Klein, photographer known also for his film masterpiece "Who are you Polly Magoo", or even Bob Wilson, the Director of Opera minimum aesthetic is presenting "interludes" of his own. The operation is especially a dramatic demonstration of the relevance of video art.