Chinoise A

Single-channel Video

Duration: 9:31

2009

Chinoise A is a remake of a scene from J-L Godard's "La Chinoise" (1967) in which a radical student contemplates bombing a university. The original scene, which takes place on a train, is reimagined as an online video chat. The script, which is based on a transcription of the Godard film's English subtitles, is relocated from Paris to New York and updated from 1967 to 2004.

"As an aesthetic practice, historical re-enactments draw tension between the respective differences of those being compared.  In a contemporized rendition of a scene from Jean Luc Godard’s film entitled ‘La Chinoise’ (1967), artist Mark Tribe stages a conversation, set in New York City in late 2004, between a student and a former 60’s radical turned professor.  For audiences today, the conversation topic—bombing a university—resonates as a specific response to a very specific set of historical conditions that implicate political currents in New York City today."  - Marisa Jahn, Where We Are Now, Issue 02, Autumn 09