Artavazd Pelechian, Nature .

1938

Artavazd Pelechian is born in Armenia in Leninakan, present-day Gyumri. He is raised in Kirovakan (now Vanadzor), where, after technical training, he was first a metal worker, and later a draftsman.

1963

Having settled in Moscow, Pelechian decides to enter the VGIK, the prestigious film school, which counts among its former students major figures of Soviet cinema, including Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov, Alexander Sokurov, and Andrei Konchalovsky. He makes his first three films here and graduates in 1968.

1964

Mountain Patrol

Film 35 mm, black and white, 10 min, Armenia / URSS

This film follows a group of workers who each day clear the tracks for trains in the Armenian mountains. Artavazd Pelechian extols the dignity and rigor of manual labor.

1966

Land of the People

Film 70 mm, black and white, 10 min, URSS

Land of the People opens and closes with an image of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker. Between these two sequences, the film evokes the accomplishments and activities through which humans inhabit the Earth.

1967

The Beginning

Film 35 mm, black and white, 10 min, URSS

Made on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution (1917), this film shows images of the Russian Revolution in parallel with sequences invoking the worldwide social strife of the 1960s.

1969

We

Film 35 mm, black and white, 26 min, Armenia / URSS

A vibrant tribute to the Armenian people, We visually expresses exile, reunion, collective fervor, destruction, and reconstruction, capturing the tumults of Armenia’s history. With this film, Artavazd Pelechian starts exploring distance montage.

1970

The Inhabitants

Film 35 mm, black and white, 10 min, Belarus / URSS

In this pioneering film, hordes of wild animals, some of the planet’s other inhabitants, flee an invisible threat, which audiences gradually associates with humanity’s influence over the planet.

First screening of one of Artavazd Pelechian’s films in the West: We is shown at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Germany, where the jury awards it first prize.

1975

The Seasons

Film 35 mm, black and white, 29 min, Armenia / URSS

With its epic sweep, The Seasons follows a community of Armenian peasants in their daily labor, tuning their relationship with nature to the rhythm of the seasons.

1982

Our Century

Film 35 mm, black and white, 48 min (1982) / 30 min (1990), Armenia / URSS

Our Century evokes the race to the stars embarked upon by the United States and the USSR in the 20th century, turning the utopia of Icarus’s dream into a frenetic technological race.

1983

Film critic Serge Daney meets Artavazd Pelechian in Moscow. In Libération, he publishes one of the first profiles of the filmmaker in the Western press, which marks the beginning of his international recognition.

1988

Russian publication of Moyo Kino [My cinema], a manifesto in which the filmmaker develops his cinematic theories, in particular his conception of distance montage (also called contrapuntal editing).

Invited by the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Artavazd Pelechian makes his first trip to the West. The following year, Jean-Luc Godard is struck by the discovery of his films at the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival in Switzerland, shown as part of a retrospective of Armenian cinema.

1992

The End

Film 35 mm, black and white, 8 min, Armenia

During a train trip from Moscow to Yerevan, Artavazd Pelechian films the passengers, men and women of different ages and origins. This collective journey, steadily unspooling against an uncertain horizon, can be seen as a metaphor for life, a certain notion of destiny.

The first retrospective of Artavazd Pelechian’s films is held in the West, at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. On this occasion, an exceptional conversation between Artavazd Pelechian and Jean-Luc Godard is published in Le Monde, the result of a meeting in Paris organized by Jean-Michel Frodon.

Artavazd Pelechian’s theoretical text, Contrapuntal montage, or the Theory of Distance, taken from his book Moyo Kino, is publi- shed in French in the second issue of the journal Trafic, founded

1993

Life

Film 35 mm, color, 7 min, Armenia / URSS

Life celebrates the moment of birth through images of women in labor and of newborns. A veritable ode to existence, the film references religious iconography to invoke the mystery of childbirth.

2001

The Fondation Cartier presents the film The Seasons during the exhibition Un Art Populaire. This is the beginning of a long-standing relationship with the filmmaker, with exhibitions held in Paris (in particular, Ce Qui Arrive, conceived by philosopher Paul Virilio, 2002) and abroad. Four of Artavazd Pelechian’s films have since joined the Fondation Cartier’s collection: The Seasons, The Inhabitants, Our Century, and Nature. In 2014, the film The Inhabitants became the central piece in a series of exhibitions organized by Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca from the Fondation Cartier’s collection, held in Paris (2014), Buenos Aires (2017), and Milan (2021).

2005

The Fondation Cartier and the ZKM Filminstitut commission a new film from Artavazd Pelechian. The director drafts a synopsis,the original of which is displayed in this room, precisely describing the visual construction of the film, titled Nature.

2014

On the occasion of the Fondation Cartier’s thirtieth anniversary, artist and musician Patti Smith conceives a concert titled Swans, A Tribute to Artavazd Pelechian, held in the filmmaker’s presence.

2015

Publication of Russian and English versions of My Universe and Unified Field Theory. Here, Artavazd Pelechian develops his thinking on notions of space and time in relation to his conceptions of cinema, echoing what he had written decades earlier in his text, Le Montage à Contrepoint.

2020

Nature

Digital, black and white, 62 min, France / Armenia / Germany

Artavazd Pelechian’s new film depicts the force and majesty of nature, capable of overpowering human communities and their achievements. Nature offers a striking vision of the likely conclusion of the ecological havoc that currently reigns.