I recently met Pascal Mourier at the opening of his show Mon Bureau de Pascal Mourier, an inside look at his office, which is a fascinating world of a very creative and prolific writer, producer, and filmmaker.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in a southern suburb of Paris called Malakoff from a Parisian father and a Warsaw-based mother.
When and why did you move to Paris?
I moved to Paris rapidly to attend the Paris VII (7) university and follow a “science of communication” course.
You report on culture, art, and fashion for France 24. What have been some of your favorite events you have covered?
Four times a year, Paris hosts the haute couture, ready to wear and men’s fashion collections. Twenty-five years later, I still can’t get enough. The topic may appear frivolous and superficial, but I think, and I’m not the only one, that it’s a wonderful field study to wonder about the human behavior and witness the great changes that our planet has to go through.
You have obviously met many celebrities, actors, artists, and people in the fashion business. Which of them did you connect with the most and which were a surprise to you?
Azzedine Alaïa, aka Azzedine the rebel, is one of the most exciting living couturiers. But Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto, Walter van Beirendonck, Iris Van Herpen, or Raf Simons for example, are fascinating people because their work is the result of an intense societal analysis.
You worked at Elle magazine for a period in the 2000. What was your job and what was the experience like?
Creative director and photographer. With two friends, one is a literature specialist and the other is a doctor in philosophy, we created Les Comédies de la Mode (Fashion’s Comedies). A sort of surreal photo novel mixing art, fashion and design. Every story was displayed on a double-page for three weeks. A concrete example? In Les Comédies de la Mode, Madame Bovary satisfies her addiction for art objects and fashion with her husband’s Gold American Express card. She of course ends up committing suicide with Opium by Yves Saint Laurent.
I see that you directed a film about inside the making of the Robert Altman film Pret a Porter. What was it like to work with the legendary director Robert Altman and the cast and crew of the film?
In Prêt-à-Porter, Altman considered that television was a complete dramaturgic vector. I was acting the part of the cameraman directed by Kim Basinger and Chiara Mastroianni. At the end of each take, François Cluzet, Sophia Loren or Forest Whitaker were surprised because I kept holding my camera.
- Why don’t you put your prop down?
- It’s not a prop ! In fact, tell me, how did you feel during this scene?
- Terrified !
Altman had the unbelievable talent to put you in a complete state of panic but making sure that you would ask for more!
What other projects have you worked on that were close to your heart?
In the beginning of the 90’s, I was lucky enough be able to tell the story of the world tour of Mano Negra, the mythical French underground rock band, whose leader in Manu Chao. With Brigitte Remy, the producer of Puta’s Fever, le film, we won the grand prize of the European musical film.
Your new exhibit Mon Bureau de Pascal Mourier at the Joyce Gallery is a recreation of your office. Can you tell us more about the installation and how it came about?
Marie Chantal Doyonnard, the Joyce Gallery director, approached me one night in front of the Champs Elysées theater situated avenue Montaigne and invited me to pervade her gallery! And there I stood, astonished. Fear and pleasure getting mixed together. My last exhibit was in 2002, when I initiated the first virtual contemporary art space of the Magda Danysz Gallery with Dingo’s Manor, an unusual manor mixing the fashion world, baroque and video games.
Ten years later, at the Joyce Gallery, I wanted to share my office and all the questions around it. Take the current trend of selfies. What is the most important thing? Taking them or the process that leads to taking them? What is the true impact of Fashion Films? (Especially when you put on the very special earrings of the Parisian Haute Couture brand On Aura Tout Vu.)
The first documentary that I directed, in 1986, told of the help given by a Parisian charity to a village in Mali. Is it an ethnological movie or a propaganda movie?
I was also able to expose in that configuration the bronze memorial objects (floppy disk, i-phone, tape, computer mouse) by artist Régine Pierrot and the first 3D lenticular photo by the FahionLab of Dassault Systèmes. But mostly, I made available to the public my fashion fetiches in association with Jogo Bonito who works to channel the sometimes destructive energy of youngsters in a difficult situation through capoeira and football.
I would also like to thank the Parisian fashion school Atelier Chardon Savard and more specifically two students, Maïwenn Nicolas and Mathilde Landais who greatly helped my wife, Helene Acker and myself in the preparation of this exhibit. I would like to thank Mediatv Presse, Bab Studio, The Universty of Lyon 2 and the international French information channel France 24.
If you could invite any person living or dead to dinner, who would it be and where would you invite them to dinner?
Marcello Mastroianni! At Ma Cocotte, Philippe Starck’s restaurant in Saint Ouen flea market.
What arrondissement do you live in and what do you like about it most?
I live with my family in Saint Ouen flea market. We are not in the city, not in the suburbs, not in the countryside, we are… at the flea market.
What do you prefer about Paris?
It’s a city that is as adorable to embrace, as it is to leave (even for a moment!).
http://www.joyce.com/art-article/mon-bureau-de-pascal-mourier/
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