Avant l’envol explores the actual state of a selection of relevant modernist public buildings in the main Ivorian city. As an architectural tour as well as a tribute to the remarkable architectural achievements of the 60s and 70s and to – among others architects– the great Henri Chomette, a special attention is given to users and passersby, to their gestures and ways of informally appropriating the spaces for their needs. Monumentality appears here as a reminder of the ambitious and utopian vision of an era and architecture itself becomes a metaphor for power that eventually reveals a state of lasting status quo.
The Aletsch Glacier is the longest and largest glacier of the Alps. According to glaciologists, most glaciers will have disappeared by the end of this century, and only bits of the Aletsch will remain. Through a journey into the body of the glacier the film offers a compelling and unsettling visual experience in which our perception of the nature of the images we see, scale and temporality are questioned.
In 1970, Léopold Senghor – President of Independent Senegal – wants to create a “Senegalese” architecture... and commissions two Frenchmen to build CICES, a modernist masterpiece in which the Dakar International Fair is held every year. In static shots, Laurence Bonvin captures the spirit of place and its modern usages, which interact with the ghosts of a glorious past.
