Jean-Pierre Bertrand is a French artist known mainly for his work in the domain of the visual arts. In 1987 he decided to start a series of films which would continue, at the rate of one a year, until the year 2000.

“13 ans avant l'an 2000” (13 years before the year 2000) is the first (and last) work in this series. It is intended to be presented in a well-lit room, on 2 or 3 monitors which are placed on white bases at the height of the visitors. The videos on each monitor are identical.

Bertrand wants to keep the presentation simple, avoiding the multiplication of screens or recourse to conspicuous cables. In this respect, he stands apart from artists like Nam June Paik, for example, who use video and monitors to create complex, monumental installations.

“I like to see people's heads in the monitor like in a fish tank. The head is almost life size, it's present but at the same time it's only an image. The monitor is an object around which you can circle around, move around, like an aquarium.”
[1]

A male character is seated at the table of a pub with elegant but somewhat outdated decorations. His face is shot in close up with two cameras which permit an edit from two different perspectives. The camera also moves around him, filming his hands, the reflection of the pub and that of the cameraman in the mirror.

The man tells a story set in Brussels, during which he recalls the sensations felt during a very fast motorcycle ride. His language is sometimes rather trivial, he spits out his words very quickly, telling one anecdote after another, especially those about the bends. The story ends with a cross fade of shots of night-time traffic in an urban area and a play on the reflection of the headlights, and in the background, the music of Pascal Comelade.

In the course of the narration, close-ups of lemons sometimes appear in the foreground of the frame. The lemon is a recurring symbolic element in Bertrand's work, as can be seen from another work in the Centre Pompidou's collection, Citron en 54 (Lemon in 54, 1999).

The pictorial influence of the Impressionists, who were among the first painters to place their subjects in cafés, can be detected in the composition of the shots. The atmosphere of the pub with its gilded mirrors evokes a painting by Edouard Manet. Other video artists have also drawn on the painting tradition to create their works, for example, Bill Viola in The Greeting (1995), which offers a reinterpretation of Pontormo's work. 

Bertrand's intention with 13 ans avant l'an 2000 also has to do with a simplified, immediate reading, capable of making his work accessible to a general public. He had even envisioned a possible television broadcast. If this approach did not work for him, it turned out to be fruitful for Pierrick Sorin, who collaborated with one French TV programme, “Rapptout”, and managed to get his series of self-filmings, Pierrick et Jean Loup, broadcast.

Laetitia Rouiller
Translation and adaptation: Miriam Rosen

[1] Jacques Souilou, “Jean-Pierre Bertrand, solutions de continuité,” Art Press no. 136 (1989), pp. 18-21.