There’s just a month and a half left to catch the exhibition Agnès Varda in Californialand that pays tribute to the filmmaker and artist’s time in the Golden State. Varda had two productive periods in California, one a bit more sunshine and the other a bit more noir. She took to the long boulevards (Pico and Venice were favorites) and shot a film in a house with a kidney shaped pool and fake plants. Varda also sought out a dynamic cast of characters (against Hollywood type) in her late 1960s and early 1980s sojourns in California.
During the exhibition installation, Varda, in between her guest lectures at CalArts, her hosting of the AFI Film festival, and meetings with young directors who sought out her advice, she sat down with us to discuss the photographs and large-scale installation made for her exhibition. We see Varda’s characteristic charm, wit, and intelligence as she gives us a virtual walk-through of her life in cinema and her cinema in real life.
Artforum and the L.A. Review of Books have written about the exhibition: read about their take here and here.
Rita Gonzalez, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art