PARIS
COMMUNITY: LISA PACLET
on Tuesday
A local spotlight on the stunning Parisian video artist with a penchant for the GIF
Lisa Paclet is a talented filmmaker born in Florence and now living in Paris. After studying filmmaking and animation at MCAD in Minneapolis and Les Gobelins in Paris, she collaborated with Petronio Associates, Premiere Heure and Skertzoand works as a VJ for live events in the Gelato Collective. She also made films and played live for Hermes, YSL, A.P.C., Miu Miu, Opening Ceremony, Heal, Catherine Malandrino and more. Lately she has opened her first solo show in Brachefeld Gallery in Paris, where she presented four video installations based on the Arab Spring revolts.
Satellite Voices: What makes you smile?
Lisa Paclet: Ducks upside down. Octopi in their holes. When apparently unrelated things are making perfect sense together, even if it’s for a very short period of time.
SV: What was the first thing you ever made?
Lisa Paclet: When I was between one and four-years-old in our first apartment in Florence, my mum had a wall in the kitchen that we could draw on with markers or paint. Every day I filled what there was left of the white spaces with colour. By the time we left the apartment the whole wall was filled of tiny colorful scribbles.
SV: What’s your dream project?
Lisa Paclet: These days I am writing a film that focuses on the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through drawing. I once met a man who worked with Medicines du Monde in Afghanistan using this technique on young children; He would have them re-live the traumatic events they endured by drawing them over and over, as a form of catharsis. I’m very interested in translating these type of drawings in to a film, which would juxtapose though visuals and sound multiple perspectives of one same traumatic event. I would also love to continue working with how film can be applied physical space, from galleries to live shows: involving complex synchronization/ interaction with live instruments and audiences.
SV: What do you wish you had written / created?
Lisa Paclet: Either one of the films “Rhythm” by Len Lye or “Mt. Fuji” by Robert Breer.
SV: Who’s work / art / music would you recommend on checking out ?
Lisa Paclet: The films of Oskar Fishinger, Len Lye, Robert Breer, Norman McLaren, Zbigniew Rybczynski, George Dunning, Caroline Leaf (and so many others) inspire me constantly… As contemporary filmmakers and artists, I love the work of UVA in London and Canada in Spain. In Paris I suggest you to check out the films of Laetitia Badaut Haussmann, Irina Dakeva, Carlos Perez and the music of Breakbot.
SV: How do you describe your work?
Lisa Paclet: I like being able to make a film from beginning to end from scratch; the one man one film idea that was running around the NFB (National Film Board) of Canada in the 60s and 70s. When tackling a problem I am the happiest when I can find a solution that is specific to it, and that is stripped down of gimmicks and stylistic shortcuts. Although that’s the ideal, often there are may compromises that need to be struck from conception to realisation of any piece of work. I like randomness and chaos, but also a fairly strict rigor in execution. These things are hard to conciliate sometimes. I’m still trying to tame them both, chaos and rigour, but with the time, I’m feeling better about them.
