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Transcription of the documentary Regards qu'on plisse , 2007

Born in 1948, Alain Nahum is a filmmaker, photographer and visual artist.
He has published the books Exils, Exodes, Errances (drawings) Ed., In the name of memory and Emergences, Views of the city (photographs and drawings), Ed. Parenthèses, 2015.

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Transcription Aurélien Buraud

Transcription by Aurélien Buraud

Roland: Drawing is about making hypotheses about the placement of things. It’s about making the form become the form.

For instance, I’m not going there, because here we’re dealing with a movement of the head being thrown back, which is extremely delicate to work on.

We probably have an arm that will come back — for now, that’s how I see it — but it could change.

You can already sense the ribs, maybe even a bit of the sternum… in fact, I’m sculpting.

We have the beginning of the calf, though I don’t know what comes next because it’s a sequence with the other body [timecode 0’56, body on the canvas]. I don’t know; we’ll wait a bit.

Here, too, it’s a delicate area: the hand of this woman — this woman’s hand — gripping the calf; and the foot that also rests, resting a little on the shoulder, I think. We’re not going to deal with that right away.

We already have a mass here; we already have something… and here, the same, I think it will fade into the black.

We’ll find this hand again on the other body. But if I don’t like it, or if the paint is already a bit too thick, we can adjust it a little.

For now, I’m just approaching this section to make it vibrate a little when I stop. It’s just about setting the spatial relationship — like this [1’35]. All of this will move…

Alain: So this is the first layer, is that what you mean? [1’49]

Roland: Yes, yes. It’s a way of setting things up, without… Because it’s about creating flesh, actually, and fairly quickly.

Painting in the direction of the form… that’s Rembrandt, that’s Goya.

In fact, I feel like I’m caressing…

Alain: Actually, what you’re doing is very sensual, isn’t it?

Roland: Yes, yes, that’s it. That’s it because many people find my work a bit rigorous… Granted! But when I do it, it’s much more about a connection to meaning, to sensuality… but because these are bodies.

This form here — this woman’s body — it’s very… it can become quite heavy, so I’ll bring in light or color underneath. Then there are moments when I don’t know how it’s going to play out… there [3’10, pointing to the woman’s body], for example, I don’t know. There are things I do quite well: the penetration of the stomach — like this — between the legs… and the rest, I don’t know. That is to say, I’m not going to pursue it right now.

Roland: Here, you see what’s happening; I had a blue — a kind of blue — I can’t find it. It’s funny because it’s messy — but not that messy — so we’ll grab another.

We already have something here!

Alain: What guides you from one painting to another? [4’10]

Roland: What guides me is a sense of continuity, actually. I can’t be satisfied with [one painting]… besides, I don’t like the word "painting"; I prefer the word "painting" [in the sense of the act], but I escape the word "tableau" because of the large dimensions.

I’ll move around the charcoal a bit, with a slightly more delicate drawing for now. One can be delicate and hesitant — because you’re not sure — but in that case, it’s a kind of delicacy without risk. The risk comes afterward.

The risk becomes delicate because, from one end to the other, this form must remain fairly present. Precisely because it is, because it has a tense, silent, sleeping, fragile situation.

©2025 by Etienne Buraud

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