Serge Bloch | Once upon Many Times | Draw, tell, translate

Ne­arly 3000 years ago, a tiny, unk­nown people, trap­ped bet­ween the great em­pires of the An­ci­ent Ori­ent, Egypt, Mes­o­po­ta­mia and Gree­ce, told inc­re­dib­le stori­es about a flow of in­ter­con­nec­ted events that have tra­vel­led th­ro­ugh time and space, sur­vi­ving chang­ing his­to­ri­cal eras and cul­tu­res. This pri­me­val nar­ra­tive is rec­rea­ted by the text of Fréd­éric Boyer and the dra­wings of Serge Bloch. Exile, mig­ra­ti­on, en­coun­ters and dis­co­ve­ri­es come to life, the ac­count be­co­mes our own story.

Who has not felt the need to pass on a story one has read or heard? Tales are kept alive by being con­veyed bet­ween people, they tra­vel from one per­son to anot­her, th­ro­ugh time and space, con­nec­ting cul­tu­res. The Bible was born in the midst of pas­sa­ges and exi­les and the ex­hi­bit­ion

Once upon Many Times” in­vi­tes us to make a journey of our own: we can wan­der among these an­ci­ent stori­es, sur­roun­ded by image and sound. The idea took off due to an en­coun­ter bet­ween dra­wing ar­tist and il­lustra­tor Serge Bloch and writer and trans­la­tor Fréd­éric Boyer. They re­la­ted to each other what they had heard, seen and un­ders­to­od of this ne­arly 3000-year old saga... They re­count the epi­sod­es of the Old Tes­ta­ment to their fel­low con­tem­por­ari­es in mo­dern lan­gu­age and an ani­ma­ted, li­vely style.

The ex­hi­bit­ion int­ro­du­ces vi­si­tors to the play­ful yet se­ri­o­us work of the two aut­hors. The Bu­da­pest Kun­sthal­le pre­sents nine ani­ma­ti­on films in three rooms of the Mű­csar­nok#Box to­get­her with the vi­su­al world of Serge Bloch’s gra­phics and pages from his book. The ani­ma­tions cover ma­inly the most fa­mi­li­ar stori­es from the Book of Ge­ne­sis: the Cre­a­ti­on nar­ra­tive, the Pa­ra­di­se, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark with Ab­ra­ham, Sarah and Noah, the Batt­le of Je­ri­cho from the Book of Jos­hua or the prop­het Jonah’s Call from the Book of Jonah. The ex­hi­bit­ion al­lows vi­si­tors to ex­pe­ri­en­ce im­ma­nent human fee­lings and si­tu­a­tions, such as love, je­alo­usy, exile... In ad­di­ti­on to the an­ci­ent fo­un­da­ti­o­nal nar­ra­ti­ves– as it hap­pens, sha­red by the three mo­not­he­is­tic re­li­gions − of Wes­tern cul­tu­re we also come to face with the world we are cur­rently li­ving in. We are also part of this ch­ro­nic­le and sho­uld be aware that it is our own story in­de­ed.

All films are nar­rat­ed in French by actor André Dus­sol­li­er with con­se­cu­tive Hun­ga­ri­an and Eng­lish sub-tit­les. At the Bu­da­pest ex­hi­bit­ion, two epi­sod­es are shown, nar­rat­ed by Tamás Dunai.

The ex­hi­bit­ion Once upon Many Times was first pre­sen­ted in 2016 in a met­ro­po­li­tan art space The CENT­QUAT­RE-PARIS, one year later in the re­li­gi­o­us en­vi­ron­ment of the mon­as­tery of Chart­re­u­se de Vil­le­ne­u­ve les Avig­non, then in Kra­kow du­ring an art­fair. Most re­cently it was seen in Ge­ne­va at the In­ter­na­ti­o­nal Mus­e­um of the Re­for­mati­on wit­hin the con­text of the his­to­ry of the re­for­mati­on.

Bible – Les ré­cits fon­da­te­urs, a book by Fréd­éric Boyer and Serge Bloch was pub­lis­hed in 2016 by Ba­yard Pres­se. The Hun­ga­ri­an edi­ti­on Bib­lia – Az ősi tör­té­ne­tek was pub­lis­hed by Sco­lar/Vi­vand­ra with the trans­la­ti­on of Zsolt Pacs­kovsz­ky.

The Bu­da­pest ex­hi­bit­ion was con­ce­i­ved by the ow­ners of La­ti­tu­de bookstore and it was re­a­li­zed by the co­ope­ra­ti­on of the Mű­csar­nok, the French Ins­ti­tu­te, the Sco­lar and Vi­vand­ra pub­lis­hers.

 

Cura­tor: Zsu­zsan­na Zsu­zsa

Spon­sor:

Ins­ti­tut Français de Bu­da­pest

Part­ner:

Sco­lar Kiadó

Tech­ni­cal spon­sor:

Epson

 

 

Vir­tu­al tour

Once upon Many Times

Egy­szer volt, sok­szor volt
2019. October 11. - December 1.

Kunsthalle#Box

Tickets
2019. October 4. - November 24.
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