Hommes a Femmes (Michel Debrane)

Overview

Single channel video projection, which documents an attempt to dramatically re-enact a 1977 interview conducted between the French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre, and journalist Catherine Chaîne, which was published in 'Le Nouvel Observateur' journal. The project develops from a number of previous projects Byrne has realised, each of which similarly engage a collective amnesia about our shifting cultural history, through dramatic re-enactments of culturally loaded conversations and interviews gleaned from discarded popular magazines. With Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane) Byrne focuses on a generically candid encounter with Sartre, which discusses his relationship with women throughout his life, at a moment towards the end of that life.