This year, Living in Nyon has a team of reviewers at the Visions du Réel film festival. Last night Emma Johnson went along to see eight short films by Tracey Emin. Another selection of Tracey Emin’s films are featured as the focus of tonight’s Grand Debate at the World-Dreams Capitole 1 cinema at 19:30 and there is also another Tracey Emin session screening on Monday at 16:00 in the Salle de la Colombière. Inspiring reaction, good and bad Tracey Emin, one of Britain’s most well known contemporary artists, has a string of words associated with herself and her work: provocative, daring, shocking and unflinchingly honest. Last night in Nyon, a small crowd gathered at the Salle de la Colombière to find out if she had something to say. While they were not all there at the end of the screening, those who remained certainly had something to think about. Tracey’s collection of documentary films is part of the Vision du Réel’s "Reprocessing Reality" category. True to form, her work pushes the blurred borders between art and documentary making. Indeed, the woman who introduced the session warned the audience that the films could be quite challenging. The screening began with "The Crystal Ship", a 4-minute home video clip where Tracey dances in her kitchen to the famous Door’s song of the same name. The camera follows Tracey swirling around in an ecstatic trance, almost Sufi-like. Some members of the audience were already shifting in their seats – nothing else seemed to be happening. Yet what seemed to be a case of someone just picking up the camera and filming was in fact a carefully crafted moment. What was Tracey trying to do? Tracey Emin - Photo courtesy Visions du Réel
The next couple of short films, "Finding Gold" and "Niagra", continued with the feel of home videos and were more autobiographical in nature. Both are personal, coming-of-age episodes in her life. With its super-8 footage from home videos, "Finding Gold" is thick with nostalgia for the end of summer and for another, lost time that Tracey recounts in a voice-over. Niagra, documents another period in Tracey’s life when she and a group of friends visit the falls in the middle of winter. "Riding for a Fall" is a 3-minute film that shows Tracey on horseback on the beach as the sun sets. In a role reversal, the cowboy is female this time and the shots used in it are a little reminiscent of those often seen in video clips. But just what is going on here? Then Love is a Strange Thing provided light relief from the artist’s demanding films – it is a fun parody of desire, and of taboos, as a drooling dog tries to pick Tracey up in a park. "Emin & Emin Cyprus 1996" shows clips of both Tracey and her dad swimming in the sea. Once again a sad nostalgia is created with the use of home videos in this surprisingly touching affirmation of love. "Conversation with My Mum", on the other hand, was perhaps the most accessible of the films shown. It documents Tracey and her mother discussing the subject of having children, abortion and childlessness. A personal conversation is made public and its content challenges certain ideas about women and their having children. Watching "Hard Love", a seven-minute film of Tracey attacking and pruning her garden in preparation for spring, part of the audience impatiently moved around in their seats again. With not much happening in the film, it seemed really self-indulgent. Yet across her films, there is a fearless self-exposure and self-exploration that perhaps invites the audience to look at themselves. The apparent carefree approach to making these films is one thing – they make you ask what is a documentary? Why is this considered as good art? Why does this matter? It is important to remember that a specific frame has been chosen – a particular part of the truth, of the real, has been selected to be shown. We never get the full story. Both the content of and the way the films are made are challenging. Tracey Emin’s work inspires reactions, whether good or bad. And it certainly makes you think. Emma Johnson is a writer from New Zealand and is currently based in Geneva.