Bettina Blanc-Penther
I am a believer - Film - 19min - 2018
présenté dans le cadre de l'exposition Panorama 20
Film
We see the ocean the day before, late afternoon.
Behind the house, we first saw it when the tide was rising.
It was almost enough to make you frightened of going to bed, afraid that it would go on rising forever, covering the beach, the roads, entering the forest, covering the trees.
It would even come up the old stone stairs and surge into our beds, carrying away our sleeping bodies and waking us up in the middle of a new world.
The landscape is green, a boat is drifting deep in the water.
There is no need to take the oars, it moves forward, accustomed to its solitude.
Above it, far away on the surface, the sun is shining.
The rays cross the currents without being diverted. They fall straight.
Sometimes we see a young girl, down where the first river flowed.
Curiously, we never feel like talking to her.
We are told that the house, finally, is no longer alone.
That a small tree has been placed in front of it.
We don’t know the rules, it’s up to us to invent other ones, a bit further on, outside.
Bettina Blanc-Penther
Bettina Blanc Penther is a choreographer and performer. They studied applied modern literature at the Sorbonne before graduating from the Photo/Video department of the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. Between 2017 and 2018, they joined Le Fresnoy-Studio National des Arts where they made two short films: Too much Tenderness and I am a Beliver, which were shown in festivals and exhibitions such as the Art Press Biennale and the Xposed festival in Berlin. In 2019, alongside their visual arts practice, Bettina joined the curatorial study group "Displays" at EnsadLab-PSL as a student researcher, working on the notion of agency in artworks. They practice wrestling in national competition with the "Red Devils's club." At the same time, they dance and collaborate with choreographer Marcela Santander Corvàlan on her pieces "Quietos" and "Bocas de Oro". They give numerous dance workshops for all audiences at the CND, the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, etc. In 2021, Bettina and Pauline Brun founded the company No SMALL MESS, which hosts choreographic projects such as their new solo "Secretly Troubled" on the theme of shame. In 2023, they participated in the Danceweb program at Impulstanz in Vienna. In 2024, Bettina created and presented in Berlin with choreographer Antonia Baerh a piece on the transmission between two generations of butch entitled Silver and Baby Butch.
