Magiciens reconsidered 4: the US films itself

Celebrated immigrants to the US, artist Claes Oldenburg and musician David Byrne, offer playful if somewhat biting reflections on the culture of the nation that became their home in childhood.

Claes Oldenburg 1962 (edited 1971), 16mm transferred to video, black and white 10 min

Filmed by Roy Fridge. This film records a performance led by Claes Oldenburg, one of the artists included in Magiciens de la Terre. Staged in a disused house on the grounds of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts in 1962, Injun involves Oldenburg in the title role, together with over twenty fellow performers.

David Byrne, USA 1987, 35mm, 89 min

David Byrne is the protagonist/narrator, as well as director, of this film set in the mythical US town of Virgil, Texas. Bryne guides us through this fictional community introducing characters and scenarios inspired by articles in supermarket tabloids. Byrne’s band, Talking Heads, together with the films cast producing the songs for the soundtrack. This multipart project encompassed the film together with an album and book of photography (with new work by William Eggleston, Len Jenshel, and others) and drew on a diverse team of Byrne’s collaborators from performance artists and choreographers to musicians and local non-actors. This work was made between the influential concert film Stop making sense 1984 and Byrne’s documentary concerning Candomblé, the African-influenced spirit cult of the Bahia region of Brazil, Ilé Aiyé 1989. The latter film was also screened as part of the Cinema programme for Magiciens de la Terre.