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Annette Michelson : Eros Et Mathesis

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Annette Michelson : Eros Et Mathesis Perspective Actualité en histoire de l’art 2 | 2020 Danser Annette Michelson : eros et mathesis Annette Michelson: eros and mathesis Annette Michelson: Eros und Mathesis Annette Michelson: eros e mathesis Annette Michelson : eros y mathesis Enrico Camporesi Édition électronique URL : https://journals.openedition.org/perspective/21981 DOI : 10.4000/perspective.21981 ISSN : 2269-7721 Éditeur Institut national d'histoire de l'art Édition imprimée Date de publication : 30 décembre 2020 Pagination : 275-286 ISBN : 978-2-917902-90-5 ISSN : 1777-7852 Référence électronique Enrico Camporesi, « Annette Michelson : eros et mathesis », Perspective [En ligne], 2 | 2020, mis en ligne le 30 juin 2021, consulté le 01 juillet 2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/perspective/21981 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/perspective.21981 Annette Michelson : eros et mathesis Enrico Camporesi – MICHELSON, 2017 : Annette Michelson, On the Eve of the Future: Selected Writings on Film, Cambridge, Mass. / Londres, MIT Press, 2017. – MICHELSON, 2020 : On the Wings of Hypothesis: Collected Writings on Soviet Cinema, Rachel Churner (éd.), Malcolm Turvey (préface), Cambridge, Mass. / Londres, MIT Press, 2020. VariaVaria 275 « Mais qu’est-ce que la duchesse est en train de faire à sa 1. École de Fontainebleau, Portrait présumé de Gabrielle sœur ? » Annette Michelson rapporte une scène de visite au d’Estrées et de sa sœur musée du Louvre. Une amie – ou un ami – qui l’accompagne la duchesse de Villars, vers 1594, lui pose cette question alors qu’elles regardent ensemble le Paris, musée du Louvre. double portrait présumé de Gabrielle d’Estrées et de sa sœur, la duchesse de Villars, au bain. L’observation de ce geste énig- matique – celui de la Duchesse qui « indique et encercle le mamelon du sein de sa sœur1 » – et le questionnement qui en découle occupent une place centrale dans l’essai intitulé « On the Eve of the Future » (1984). L’auteure ouvre celui-ci par une analyse du texte de Baudelaire « Morale du joujou » (1853), pour se concentrer ensuite sur la nouvelle éponyme de Villiers de L’Isle-Adam (c’est bien son Ève future, publié en 1886, qui donne son titre à l’essai), en passant par l’école de Fontainebleau, les vénus anatomiques du XVIIIe siècle et la statue de Condillac. Cette rapide évocation des références contenues dans l’article suscite immédiatement une sensation de désorientation chez le lecteur, qui grandit lorsque l’on s’aperçoit que le texte endosse par ailleurs un rôle emblématique : il donne son titre au premier recueil de son auteure. Publié en 2017, un an avant la disparition de Michelson, le volume en question porte le sous-titre « Écrits choisis sur le film ». Mais quel rapport entre le contenu de l’article et celui, général, de l’ouvrage ? Que représente cette « Ève future » pour Annette Michelson ? Comprendre cette articulation, à première vue peu évidente, peut permettre, en préambule, de déchiffrer le sens de la vaste opération intellectuelle entreprise par Annette Michelson dès les années 1960 et jusqu’aux années 2000. Dans son introduction au recueil, l’auteure précise ce qui relie l’essai aux enjeux du volume : l’attention portée au corps de Hadaly, l’androïde féminin décrit par Villiers dont Michelson retrace la généalogie, fait apparaître, tel un récit d’anticipation, l’effet des stratégies de tournage et de montage du corps féminin au cinéma. Pour reprendre les mots de l’article de 1984, ce corps serait non pas « l’objet d’une iconographie cinématique de répression et désir […] mais plutôt le terrain fantasmatique du cinéma en tant que tel2 ». La distinction est fondamentale car elle fait glisser l’attention du simple plan de la représentation à celui des stratégies formelles du film. C’est par ailleurs ce même déplacement de point de vue qui éclaire le choix des objets considérés dans le volume – essentiellement des films d’avant-garde ou expérimentaux, voire des films d’artistes qui ne partagent pas forcément les structures de signification du cinéma industriel et dont l’analyse nécessite, par conséquent, un renouvellement de l’appareillage théorique. C’est grâce à ces objets aussi qu’on parvient à entendre le double sens du titre du recueil : en anglais, the Eve of the Future pourrait évoquer non seulement « l’Ève » de Villiers, mais également « la veille du futur ». Les artistes considérés par Michelson (à l’exception de Martha Rosler3) travaillent en 16 mm dans une période qui précède l’adoption générale de la vidéo. Ce terrain de recherche représente, selon les mots de l’auteure, « une avant-garde historique et récente à la veille du futur4 », avant une bascule technologique majeure. Que faut-il entendre par « terrain de recherche » ? Plus qu’un domaine dans lequel Michelson se serait spécialisée, il faut peut-être se figurer quelque chose comme un périmètre qui se serait dessiné au cours de (et grâce à) quelques rencontres spécifiques. En ce qui concerne le film, on pense à certaines œuvres (impossible de sous-estimer l’impact du long zoom avant de Wavelength de Michael Snow, 19675), à certains textes (la découverte, au milieu des années 1970, du projet d’adaptation par Sergeï Eisenstein du Capital de Marx6) ou encore à quelques interlocuteurs essentiels (des artistes comme le photographe et cinéaste Hollis Frampton7). 276 PERSPECTIVE / 2020 – 2 / Danser Au moment où Michelson commence à écrire sur le film, elle est déjà critique d’art depuis une quinzaine d’années. Installée à Paris dès 1950 et correspondante pour Arts Magazine et Arts International, ainsi que pour l’édition européenne du New York Herald Tribune 8, ce n’est qu’à son retour à New York qu’elle rencontre le cinéma expérimental qui est en train de s’y fabriquer, et qui va constituer son terrain d’élaboration théorique. Elle publie alors essentiellement ses textes dans deux revues : Artforum à partir de 1966 et jusqu’en 1976 – elle quitte alors la rédaction avec Rosalind Krauss pour fonder, avec cette dernière, la revue October. La complicité entre Krauss et Michelson ne repose pas sur une congruence absolue de positions intellectuelles, bien que les points de rencontre soient flagrants – notamment sur l’importation de ce qu’on appellera la French Theory aux États-Unis. Les deux femmes partagent sûrement plus d’un terrain d’entente ; pourtant leurs méthodes respectives diffèrent de manière significative, une divergence qui ne peut être réduite ni à l’écart entre leurs formations respectives (alors que Michelson est diplômée du Brooklyn College, Krauss est alumna de Harvard), ni à leur écart générationnel (Michelson, née en 1922, est de presque vingt ans l’aînée de Krauss). Comme l’a noté Malcolm Turvey, et contrairement à certains de ses contemporains, Michelson ne choisit jamais une école ou une grille de lecture à partir desquelles analyser ses objets9. On retrouve plutôt, chez elle, une sorte de méthode inductive qui pose l’objet au centre de la réflexion pour mobiliser ensuite les références nécessaires au travail analytique. La théorie comme boîte à outils : son activité critique pourrait presque être assimilée à une forme de bricolage, au sens que lui donne Lévi-Strauss10 et à l’instar des programmes artistiques de ses contemporains. La métaphore apparaît d’ailleurs explicitement en 2001, lors d’une relecture des textes fondateurs de la cinéaste Maya Deren : La théorie et la pratique de Stan Brakhage, Paul Sharits, Hollis Frampton, Peter Kubelka, Malcolm LeGrice et Peter Gidal, entre autres, nous pouvons désormais nous en saisir comme d’un corpus extraordinairement puissant et proleptique que l’on pourrait appeler une pensée sauvage, produit d’un brillant bricolage accompli dans le cadre général d’une esthétique moderniste11. En appliquant le terme de « bricolage » à la poétique des artistes qui l’entouraient dans les années 1970, elle suggère que son propre parcours a, lui aussi, emprunté quelque chose à cette « pensée sauvage ». Que dire, alors, de sa propre boîte à outils ? C’est la cinéaste et photographe Babette Mangolte qui a su, de manière iconique, la rendre visible. Dans une célèbre photographie prise dans l’appartement de Michelson en 1976, elle restitue la présence imposante de sa bibliothèque, littéralement bourrée de livres et de revues. Cet espace désigne un périmètre de travail, mais non pas nécessairement un lieu d’écriture. La photographie offre, in absentia, un portait de Michelson comme lectrice. Et si, comme l’a récemment affirmé l’un de ses anciens étudiants, Allen S. Weiss, « la bibliothèque est une forme de l’inconscient12 », au vu de l’exigence intellectuelle de sa propriétaire, la bibliothèque représente peut-être également une configuration du surmoi : l’étendue de ses lectures et l’hétérogénéité de ses sujets de recherche sont peut-être responsables de son perfectionnisme dans l’écriture. Durant les cinq dernières décennies de sa vie, notamment, elle était devenue « notoirement capricieuse comme écrivaine […] au point d’être réticente à s’engager à publier quoi que ce soit13 ». On the Eve of the Future ne permet pas de mesurer l’amplitude du travail de Michelson – il semble en effet difficile d’imaginer qu’une publication puisse un jour tenir cette promesse. Durant plusieurs décennies, la publication de ce recueil a été régulièrement Varia 277 2. Babette Mangolte, Annette Michelson’s évoquée par Michelson elle-même comme un travail Bookshelves on the Upper West Side (1976). en cours. Au moment où il est publié, en 2017, on y discerne moins la systématisation d’un certain nombre de questions qu’une tentative de réunir en un seul volume quelques investigations saillantes sur un seul médium, le film. Unique en son genre, cet ouvrage est le seul qu’Annette Michelson imagina de son vivant, avec l’aide de Rachel Churner, éditrice indépendante (no place press) et chargée d’édition d’October dans les années 200014.
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