Everything You Always Wanted
(1992) Le Fresnoy, Transit
organized by Pascale Pronnier,
curated by Hervé Gauville
catalog essay, Du Murmure de l'Etre, by Russell Keziere

Le Fresnoy

In October 1992 EVERYTHING You Always Wanted was installed in a derelict entertainment complex in a small industrial town in the north of France.

The work was grounded to its site, a foyer, a bar and a cinema, by a synchronized multi-track recording. A neon cinema and a La Bête style candelabra introduced the piece.

Inside the foyer one saw a blue light in the guichet and heard a cashier ringing up sales. Another soundtrack could be heard from the bar. There the audio alternated between public and private experience; a real life recording from a stage set crossfaded into a series of dialogues from movies talking about the romance of making films.

Through a pair of headphones, an introspective monologue projected an individual's desires onto Hollywood's façade. Mirrors and a cluster of tiny still projections anchored these sounds to the room. Through the swinging doors to the left one could hear another audiotrack. Following these sounds one arrived at the balcony of the cinema, a romantic faerie bower with plants along the brass railing and spays of coloured lights down the aisles.

A slide projection dissolve of stars and constellations flooded the ceiling; the screen up front showed a video image of the MGM lion roaring back and forth. Short complicated soundtracks filled the theatre with love stories and murder mysteries constructed from swells of music and overlapping bits of movie dialogue.