Film and architecture CSAC Parma Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine

On November 17 the evocative spaces in Valserena Abbey, home to CSAC Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, will host the final event in the Film and Architecture series, focusing on filmmakers Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine and organised as part of the Parma Film Festival - “Invenzioni dal vero” (“Inventions from the truth”). The two filmmakers made a series of films entitled Living Architectures, sixteen films representing architecture in an unusual way. The whole film collection has been acquired by MoMA The Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of its permanent collection.

The event organised by CSAC Parma University and the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservationists of the Province of Parma, with the support of the City of Parma, Fondazione MonteParma and Sequence, will see the participation of director Ila Bêka at an event held in the abbey church then screened in the CSAC hall. The film selected to conclude the series is Moriyama-San, telling the story of a week in the life of Mr. Moriyama, a Japanese art, architecture and music fan. Mr. Moriyama’s life unfolds in an unusual setting, a famous contemporary home built for him by architect Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), winner of the 2005 Pritzker Prize. The directors take viewers into the microcosmos of an experimental building which “completely redefines the common idea of domestic life to illustrate the unique personality of the owner: an urban hermit who lives in an island of peace and contemplation in the heart of Tokyo”. The screening will be followed by a meeting with director Ila Bêka.

Living Architectures is a series of sixteen films in which directors Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine illustrate important works of architecture from the point of view of some of their users. The projects covered in the films are by some of the best-known architects of our times, houses such as the Moriyama home in Tokyo by Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA) or the villa in Floriac, near Bordeaux, France, designed by Rem Koolhaas, featured in the film Koolhaas Houselife. Museums such as the Bilbao Guggenheim by Frank Gehry, featured in Gehry Vertigo, and churches such as Dives in Misericordia (also known as the Jubilee Church) by American architect Richard Meier.
What the directors offer the public is not an idealised representation of the building, nor a dynamic version of a magazine article with perfect images showing spaces and surfaces. The two directors reverse the viewpoints from which we traditionally look at a work of architecture to show the buildings’ everyday lives, so that, for example, the Moriyama house is presented through the daily life of the man who lives in it, Mr. Moriyama, while Rem Koolhaas’s villa in Floriac is illustrated through a typical day in the life of the housekeeper, Guadalupe Alcedo, and the Bilbao Museum is depicted through the eyes of the expert climbers who clean its walls.
Architects participating in the event will receive two professional development credits.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Title: Living Architectures
MORIYAMA-SAN
screening and meeting with director Ila Bêka
Date: Saturday 17 November 2018, 18:00
Location: Valserena Abbey, Strada Viazza di Paradigna, 1 (Parma)
www.csacparma.it

---

GALLERY