Philip Parrenot. “Zidane has a special presence, a concentration that is almost like meditation”

Meeting Philippe Parreno is an experience. His first studio, a red and white chalet, in an 11th-century courtyard in Paris^e district, without a call. On the first floor, the accumulation of soccer balls contrasts with the minimalism of the green marble wall where the fireplace is integrated. Upstairs, a glass roof, light, a huge couch in front of a giant screen. Everything is beautiful, selected, down to the armchairs by Hans Wegner. He, football skull, not to mention bald, soft voice, disappearing presence. Born in 1964, he is a key artist of his generation, works with different media (film, sculpture, drawing, text, etc.) and has redefined the exhibition space by embracing it as a medium. Until 2024, the Paris Philharmonic presents its exhibitions in Seoul and Cologne Zidane, portrait of 21^e century *a visual and sound work that spatializes the 2005 film of the same name.

A journey through images and sound – Zidane’s breath, the kick of the ball, the collision of bodies – remixed with original music by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. “The film was already shown in its exhibition version at Tokyo Palace eleven years ago. He is shown like this for the second time. Furthermore, I recently saw it again at the Cinematheque. It is regularly shown at festivals and seminars. It is a bit of a cult film, let’s say a reference. It is radical, with one character,” explains Philippe Parrenot. In front of him, on the coffee table, books on white magic, Jacques Lacan’s latest seminars, and The architecture of the possible By Tristan Garcia. A reflection of his current affairs.

Madame Figaro. – Can you explain the setting of the film?
Philip Parrenot. –The film about Zizu was shot with seventeen cameras. This is the “Real Madrid” – “Villarreal” championship match, which took place on April 23, 2005. The idea was to portray Zidane during the 90 minutes of the game. We often only remember a few seconds in his career, or that of, for example, Roger Federer or Michael Jordan. The film had the bias of him watching through the game. The score, the result did not matter. He shows this special attention, this focus.

He is passionate…
I’ve had this experience with dancers before. I remember working with the Merce Cunningham dancers. Usually the music guides their movements. In this case, the music is asynchronous. It is thanks to the body that they remember.

Actors in the theater say the same thing. There is body memory…
It is a certain form of presence. A concentration almost like meditation. The point of the film is to capture that. Zidane remembers everything thanks to his body. When we were casually walking on the pitch, long after the game, he went to different places and remembered that there the ball was on his left foot, there he controlled it with his right foot. All movements are related to each other. It is very surprising. In the Philharmonic exhibition, video projectors take the place of seventeen cameras to offer the audience a 360-degree perspective of the meeting.

People remember Zidane like Maradona

Philippe Parrenot

What is the effect of re-watching the film eleven years later?
The film was shot in 2005. So it’s been a long time… Today we have a different relationship with images. Here it is a low resolution image, not digitized, poor in some ways. We have such brilliant images on our phones.

Zinedine Zidane was an absolute icon back then. How about today?
People remember him, like, for example, Maradona. Moreover, in the movie, he gets a red card at the end for a bad gesture and is sent off.

History of head injury.
The World Cup takes place one year later. When I showed him the film, he told me: “I am. It is very true. It suits me very well.” “It’s a bit like the way Pope Ferdinand or I don’t know which model said to Velázquez, who painted his portrait. “That’s too true.”

Before filming Zidane, you went to the Prado Museum to see Goya’s paintings. For what ?
with Douglas Gordon (artist, film co-director, editor’s note), we went to the Prado to see how painting frames bodies. Because the danger was that we would get caught in the act and follow the ball. It was necessary to frame the body, to stay on the body.

And why Zidane?
We would not have made the film without him. When we saw each other, we said: We didn’t have a plan B. We wanted to watch him for a long time. In fact, we literally spent nine months putting this movie together, watching it six to nine hours a day. We had to find different energies and amplitudes. The film is actually very close to a jazz album. While looking at it, like looking at the exhibition, something grabs us, a kind of floating attention. In fact, that’s what I always look for in my exhibitions, a floating attention…

Like floating hearings of psychoanalysts…
We could say it differently. It is because there is floating attention that form is possible. It comes from both sides: the viewer and the launcher. We are not in an authoritarian situation, this is how it begins and how it ends. We don’t slip into space. we leave everything out.

Do you have another film project?
Yes, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Korean actress Ba Du-na, who, among others, starred in the series. Emotion 8. That’s what these two women are talking about.

Why these two women?
It’s a bit like Zidane. These are people who inspire. It is the portrait of these two women who, discussing among themselves, asking each other questions, will bring out the third character. It’s a bit of a sci-fi movie.

Did you write it?
Already written with an English writer. I continued my exhibitions. We start with one idea, then another, then a third. The movie is called 100 questions, 50 lies. They ask themselves questions and at some point they will start making mistakes… It’s the opposite Pinocchio, but it’s too much Pinocchio in any case. Pinocchio , it is the story of an inanimate substance that will become a reality by incarnating into a little boy. Here, these are real characters that will produce, create a third character, a mixture of these two, a fictional character.

I am interested in this somewhat strange zone between fiction and reality

Philippe Parrenot

That’s what you’re interested in, the border between fiction and reality, isn’t it?
Of course. This somewhat strange zone between fiction and reality. Like Anne Lee, the manga character we bought with Pierre Huyghe. After doing two films with him, we gave him the right, he is his own and makes his own life…

Zidane, Marilyn, Charlotte Gainsbourg… Do you have a penchant for portraiture?
There is this notion of intensity in portraiture; The more time we spend looking at someone or something, the more this thing or person will transform, move from one state to another. If I had looked at my mother long enough, I think she would have become something else than my mother. Same for object. I transform it with the intensity of my gaze. When you look at a person, you sign a contract with them and they become half of you, half of you. It is this trepidation or unsettling space that I think the portrait occupies.

* Zidane, a portrait of the 21st century^e century until January 7 at the Paris Philharmonic. philharmoniedeparis.fr.

Read : Cahiers D’art magazinePhilippe Parreno, Editions Standard, 40 p., €100.