Bienvenue sur le site de Heure Exquise

I finally found my text with the notes. But I had to leaf through pages of my work diary, the 1995-97 one : forgotten addresses, stoney or warm descriptions of works seen while travelling around the world, congresses, meetings, speeches, festivals... and then suddenly the words "Mons en Baroeul, 8/7/96" appeared. It was the first time that I had seen or visited the Fort with its immense courtyard at the end, the vast luminous offices of "Heure Exquise !", the projection room, the video collection, the library. I had heard of "Heure Exquise !", its untiring, highly demanded international distribution of video works to which I often resorted myself and about which I continuously speak to all those who, more and more, ask me how and where to find electronic art work.

Tapes which came and went, which left and arrived. VHS, S-VHS, BETA SP, U-MATIC, PAL and SECAM... Versions in original languages and those with subtitles, conditions for hiring, possibilities of asking for tapes for viewing, the consultation service for organising exhibitions by topic. How many times had I not felt the need for such a structure in my own country ? How many times have I not given this address, these fax and telephone numbers ? Normandy Avenue - the Fort -...

During those few days, these two slightly enigmatic words, "Heure Exquise !", with their exclamation mark became a sharp and visible reality, concrete and solid, just like that imposing Fort in the middle of a mining past belonging to an area so close to Lille. I was not alone : with me was a small crowd of authors, artists, critics, specialists and many teachers, trainers and cultural "actors" who shared intense moments during those few days, the experience of the "Summer University of Video art". My notes found again : the seminars on Chris Marker (I wrote : "thoughts are on the way"), the meeting with Pierre Lobstein ("wipe your eye "; " flexibility, freedom, intimacy of the video"; find an esthetic view which can attract the onlooker, capture his glance ...") And with Gianni Toti: "a truth to be built, not a truth to be given..."; "poetry : the construction of the world, not the explanation of the world... Poetry is doing things which before did not exist"; " the work of art like a poetic dwelling for the world... "

Fragments of film never seen before, or even completely rediscovered. Stories of the cinema by Godard. Pierre Trividic and the staging of a scientific experiment (Newton), Stefan Decostere and "travelogues as a trial-video on the city ". And again, pages full of rapidly taken notes, underlined sentences, quotations (at one moment, even Max Ophuls: "happiness is never merry". But perhaps, I now feel like adding, happiness is an exquisite hour...). Over the five days, this extraordinary experiment of intense sharing of thoughts, images, doubts, and questions about video creation (and various inescapable connections with a certain cinema) went beyond the many hours spent in the projection room : it continued in the pauses, in the conversations in the courtyard, the walks around the Fort, the consultation of information so generously distributed. Files, for example, on authors, which I have kept and which I consult continuously.

Here we are, I have found the set of sheets, June 96, which invited us to exchange ideas and views on "Audio-visual Writing : Cinema, Video, Television", proposing above all "time". Finally, a meeting, a seminar which could last for hours, sometimes even a whole day. Finally, there was no need to undergo the torture of speed, to be reminded by the organizers, as is so often the case, of an approaching end, causing anguish in finishing off, in rushing through, in paying more attention to the staging of the event than in developing the thought. Time. To see, understand, take things further, ask and answer.

Suddenly, during those exquisite and luminous days of July, I understood that "Heure Exquise !" was much more than a center for the distribution of video cassettes, much more than this already "much more", place where we all go when organizing exhibitions or when requiring an update on video creation. I understood then that the presence of its members, throughout the world (at festivals, exhibitions, conferences) is an intelligent presence, the sign of a constant confrontation with works and authors, and not only that of an activity of informing, selecting and collecting. I realized that the Fort is a permanent laboratory for all kinds of activities, covering direction and production (the disconcerting tape of video-dance Not Totally) programmes on the big screen of electronic works, the organization and the preparation of meetings and exhibitions, meetings reserved for professionals of the sector. And a role of guide in coordinating distribution ("les cent lieux").