Gabrielle Le Bayon is an artist and filmmaker, whose work is centered upon the relationship between mythology and landscape as the trace of history.
Gabrielle Le Bayon’s films, writings and photographs engage with myth and history, with language and territory, exploring areas of resistance within our everyday environment and interactions in the process.
In 2017, she was awarded a Visual Art Fellowship with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and she was shortlisted for the Loop Discover Award, Barcelona. Recent shows and screenings include MOCA Hiroshima (solo show); W139, Amsterdam; International Film Festival Oberhausen Seminar with LUX (UK) & Flaherty Seminar (USA); Visions du Réel, Nyon; ICA, London; MAMBA, Buenos Aires.
Athena's Gaze
HD Video / 17:45 min / 2017
Drawing inspiration on the one hand from the historic and mythical past so much embedded in the life of the city as well as from the reality of an urban setting, the film depicts a journey in quest for “Athena” – the goddess and guardian of Athens – through the eyes of the “marbles” and through the faces of women encountered in the streets. “Athena's Gaze” looks for a cosmology of signs that resist “tragedy”, signs of a desire to compose other worlds here and now.
Silent Routes
HD Video / 24:05 min / 2016
Combining film essay form and fragmented narrative, ‘Silent Routes’ raises a dialogue between two eras; the Middle Ages where the market system begins and the 21st century where this system prevails. “Silent Routes” shows the interactions between four characters inspired by popular medieval myths who call for possibilities of new forms of life removed from social control. A troubadour sings about free love outside religion, Saint Francis of Assisi calls for the union of classes, Virgin Mary supports emancipation of the female body and the mystic beguine Marguerite Porete – who was feared for her ecstatic, sexual communions with God, and punished for it, initiates an economically autonomous space for thought. These figures raise the possibility for micro-political forms of resistance to the narration of History and a willingness to take part in its writing.
Return
HD Video / 22:44 min / 2015
Through a letter addressed to his father, Ulysses explains the reasons which have led him to come back to his homeland after many years. Inspired from Homer’s “Odyssey”, “Return” points at the choice Ulysses has to make between the space of fiction where he could become immortal and the space of reality where he is threatened by death. He aspires to reach again a space where he will find a community of souls with a certain system of values and a certain representation of life. “Return” evokes the relevance of Ulysses quest in our present-day culture, which reveals a narrative where men are History, invention, transformation as well as personal grief and happiness, where they have to negotiate being in society as much as being individuals.