Secteur IX, B

Like Leiris, Betty is on a quest for absolute subjectivity in her apprehension of the subject. To make her task possible, the researcher absorbs chemical substances on a regular basis, like the protagonists of scientific and colonial expeditions at the start of the twentieth century. Her peregrinations take viewers through the archives, corridors and underground passageways to the disturbing strangeness of the IFAN Museum of African Arts in Dakar and the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, at once heavy and devoid of historical meaning. The pack of greyhounds seen racing through the Musée de l’Homme undergoing reconstruction work, and the dark creatures of the Bandia forest seem no more surreal than the photos of the Dakar-Djibouti Mission, glorifying the researchers’ ‘discoveries’ or than the objects of worship forever frozen on their pedestal in an lifeless museum room. At the same time that Betty and her manuscript proposal—rejected for being too obscure and dangerous in terms of the work it would entail—degenerate into psychosis, cultural referents and scientifically proved knowledge also sink into a growing uncertainty and absurdity. Film duration: 41 min 58 Access to Secteur IX, B is free of charge The screening will be accompanied by The Music of Living Landscapes, a listening session with Thomas Tilly and a visual conversation with Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc on Saturday, 2 June 2018 at 5pm.