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Jean-baptiste Perret
La surface unique
Documentary | hdv | color | 20:16 | France | 2024
A farmer tells of a series of misfortunes that affect all aspects of his farm and which he attributes to an invisible phenomenon. His words reveal that he sees his body, his family, his cattle and his electrical machinery as forming a “single surface” that is likely to be affected by such events.
After completing scientific studies in ecology, Jean-Baptiste Perret worked for several years in environmental protection. Graduating in 2018 from the Fine Art School of Lyon, France, he pursued his interest in the rural environment through a cinematographic practice composed of films and video installations. His approach is based on documentary inquiry and uses methods from anthropology that question the criteria of objectivity. Distancing himself from official narratives, he focuses on indi-viduals and their own visions of the world. Jean-Baptiste Perret films people he meets in everyday situations; he is interested in the shape of their daily lives, their environments, habits, and skills. Through various degrees of staging that willingly allow room for improvisation, subjective narratives and fictional processes intertwine. Perret’s work has notably been presented at the IAC Villeurbanne, the MAC Lyon, the Fondation Ricard, the FIDMarseille, the Festival Hors-Pistes Centre-Pompidou, the États généraux du documen-taire de Lussas and most recently at the Salon de Montrouge. Jean-Baptiste Perret is represented by Salle Principale Gallery, Paris.