A brain storming session & interview recorded by the end of May 1977 at Cherica’s home, Diest, Belgium.

Voices: Gordon Matta-Clark, Cherica Convents and François Vereesen (Gordon’s personal assistant for the Office Baroque project in Antwerp).

This tape was recorded some days after the Antwerp city counsil forbade the original spherical approach Gordon wanted to realise.   (kown as the initial Office Baroque attempt)

The recording reveals Gordon’s evolution as an artist towards an architect. Due to Gordon’s illness and sudden death this evolution never became clear to the public.

In order to get quick access throughout the soundtrack, we ranked the content of this tape in a chronological order.

1. The spherical attempt, visible from outside (Office Baroque – not executed)

 

A partial transcription by Stefaan Vervoort you find here
 
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we have our famous discussion with the more famous Gordon Matta-Clark, and with… Dick van Dyke.
 
After a series of recent setbacks we are now going to reexamine the problem. Given everybody’s dependence on the city for ultimate permission, we now realize that the city fathers, true to their tradition, are a bunch of queers, creeps, cowards, and downright two-faced dogs.
 
Did you hear that?
 
Yeah, you out there, in the city, municipal fathers… But actually, we might as well talk about it with you, because you have all the hastles of making these things happen. (…) Going from a wonderfully conceived urban-scale street event, or building-street-oriented work, we are now going internal. Which means that what we are going to do is take that set of quarter of a sphere on the outside and make a triangular opening in the roof, which will then get transposed floor by floor.
 
That was my idea, when you made the first one, triangular in the roof, then you use the sun as a…
 
As a projection system. That would be ideal. The best thing possible would be to make it actually completely, so you can grew it with the solar path. But the problem with that is that, first of all, I think that the way the sun will only pass a certain minute every day and in line with that.
 
Not even that. Only once in a year; Egyptians made it like that, so as special days… And then, a … of the sun in the inner box of the pyramide, in the Ming-place? It was a high ceremonial day. They made it also with columns, another kind of shadowwork that used the same system.
 
I think most of the great mini-monuments are associated with a sort of cosmic and solar observatories. I mean, the time was then still very sort of eternal, so as that the increments are infinitely more vital than today, where everything becomes a complete cog, just another notch and another cog. But the thing is, I think that we are not going to be able to do that, for a number of reasons. One is that whatever the openings these triangles that we are going to put diagonally through the space from the roof through each floor and the various walls will have to line up in the way so as that no will cut through the main structure. Just because we are subject to these rules. I mean, we could in fact cut through them and the building would stay in place, but I think the construction people would hate.
 
But then, you also will need a central point in your building.
 
Well I think the central point is pretty clear. If the side that is the sunny side, the place where they are doing all the construction, starting at the top there and passing through that first office space, probably into the second room and down into the room below and so forth, and we’ll finally cut through to the street level. First cutting the horizontals, that is, cutting the ones that are in the floor planes, and from that we can measure where the walls will go. (5:00-5:30) So in a way, I guess it is a little bit like the Paris piece, in as much as it is a projection through the whole building. It would be nice, I mean; it’s a mid-stream change of horses, but…
 
Of course, I still have pelicule for two projects. …
 
I think what we have done so far becomes relatively more confusing in the film than anything else. So in a way we might just have to make a very quick reference to that as the original project.
 
(….)
 
I prefer just the way it is. What one would do, then, is to pass, it seems to me, from the drawing of the supposed project to the work-in-progress on the second project, and there would be some voiceover that would describe just what transitions take place and how it applies to the building as a whole, as an entire space. In fact, in some way, the project that I just supposed was one of the original ideas that I was going to do, and the reason I didn’t do it was because the other one was a little bit more, you know, forceful. I mean, I dealt with a particular kind of geometry that interests me, which is the sort of introverted spherical surface, an implied spherical surface, which is more complex, a little bit more … Well obviously, being that more complex, it would be very hard to visualize in fact; one would have the exterior lines and the interior lines, but the total form, the total volume would have never been visual. One would have had to make certain kinds of mental transfers from the idea to the actual situation.
 
But on the other side, when you could go through it …
 
… You would have had enough clues to reconstruct the original thought, I suppose.
 
The things you have by going through would be very interesting.
 
Certainly more of a real transformation of the building, I guess is the point. This requires you to put your head in a particular kind of access which is a very sort of singular experience, whereas the other one .. get it through…, there would have been much more movement around and through. But what the second project will attempt to do will be, first of all, kind of consistent with other things that I’m doing but also pick up on that kind of movement through the … the sort of space you can involve yourself in.
 
That’s what I like very much is that you could go through it. You had to feel the things you made… every point could be different and you were forced, when you went through it, to firm up.. a global idea, and this global idea of feeling, I don’t know how to call it…
 
Well, literally a global form of some sorts. It think of having to relate to the details on the inside in such a way that you would reconstruct that global surface.
 
And the only way to have a percpetion of it was experience. (I think, yeah) This was very important in that piece. Now when you have these triangles, you are going to one point.. (And you can see it from there, all). Yeah you can see it also in your mind…
 
Yeah it is certainly more simple. But there will be one kind of thing that will happen in this that is might be interesting, is that, since it is an axis, a very simple kind of geometry or sequence, you can put year head in that axis at any point. And that one might make quite a difference, in that you can look either from the street and then progress through the building, looking at it. But it doesn’t really transform the notion of the building’s space in any way.
 
This thing is embedded within your second project?
 
I think it would be a curious series of contrasts, in terms of a full range of different possibilities. Starting out with the idea that I wanted to create something of a global surface that is relatively organic in its final, formal impliciations – the way it is executed, what it has to cut htrough, and the different surfaces that that line passes through, and how the lines, not just from the moulures, but the lines would have to pass through thick rock, and then wood, and glass, and different thicknesses of material… But always what one would be reading would be the line, not the material, but the line. And here I think that basically the other piece that would be done, either in the harbour or wherever using the crane works, the networks systems is… quite different. It is a kinetic notion, where you, reading, try to sort out a mass from all the lines, I think. This is actual, kind of two extremes going on in the same set of ideas.
 
You think you will use the same material for all your lines, your cables?
 
Depending on how it is done, some the cables may be steel, and some of them may be nylon. The net itself will probably be, definitely be nylon. Either nylon or polyesteleen, or…
 
You have grabbed these prices for the net…? It’s very expensive. (…) But this is an artwork you can sell afterwards?
 
What interests me to say about the net-works, besides the fact that it is involved in a kind of heavy industrial imagery, which hasn’t been incorporated into too many works that I have seen; I mean, the idea of playing with these things the way one would play a game of cat’s cradle. Or the way one would create a sort of stage-set, a very real sort of stage-set, is some of the interesting dynamics of this simple play. They actually turn out to be large toys.
 
(practicals, chronology: 15:20-26:20)

What are you busy in Kassel with?
 
Another kind of network. I am using a big factory building, with 110 meter-high chimneys, and building something in between these chimneys. A sort of industrial web, whatever, very romantic situation. But the one here might be more interesting somehow, with the movement in them.
 
Maybe I could come over when your work is finished in Kassel? I’m thinking about for the film, more to use a period of your life, and making an editing in this way. (A series of projects?) Yes, because the way in which we are editing now, there are three projects involved… A kind of diary, (The summer of 77) It will be very interesting, because then you really can say the problems you had with government… It will…

It also fits into a longer range of filming or documentation situation, which is that after these pieces that I may do in the summer, there are other ones that are mixes of these ideas, which is another situation that is more, purely social. So there is a kind of interesting transition some day between the work that is isolated art activity, to one where that gets put into a neighbourhood context, trying to create situations for people to use.
 
What do you want to make in New York?
 
Well, there is a piece eventually – it is not going to happen right away – that will involve taking, tenement buildings, ghetto buildings, transforming it into new kind of spaces. Not just living spaces, but also group spaces.
 
And they are not used now; they are empty?
 
They are all empty.
 
So, what you try to make is a new kind of church; a new space for…?
 
Well, a combination of living and gathering space; something where people can have… Instead of living in an appartment, in a particular closure, they will have their private space, but they will also have some kind of space towards the top, like a big skylight with a space underneath it. Something that transforms the way people use the thing.. It’s more an issue in New York, especially, where people are completely packed in.

The same problem is here…
 
But here you have the country though (laughter).
 
But we have no place where people can meet..
 
The issue there is even a little bit more, let’s say, organic; because of ghetto life, the people that are activally involved in restructuring their life as underpriviledged people, they have to work very hard and very much together. They have to live … first had the habit from their, you know, Spanish sort of poor family backgrounds of doing more, sharing more; you know, having more to do with looking after each other’s children or watching somewhat other people’s problems. They also have more crimes. While some people try to create a constructive environment, there are people who are so far gone, so much distorbed by their experiences that they will try to destroy everything. So that there is kind of that immediate drama between the people who want to grow up together, and the ones who have no experience in being together with anything.
 
And this thing you want to … July-August in New York
 
No I won’t start that early. I think I will start… I’ll keep in touch with the people and maybe locate a building and do some things that relate to it, but probably that will take most starting in the Winter and going through the spring next year, and maybe even the summer of next year.
 
And in these spaces…?
 
In these tenement buildings, yeah, try to take maybe two buildings. You know, one right next to the other. And take two of them that are in very bad conditions. And rethink the whole thing. What they are doing now….
 
But also rebuild with electricity,…
 
Yeah I would say… Provide services, sure. But what I would do is first make the framework for the building, working with the people who are there. And then some federal funding would have to come in to finish them off in a way that people could use, you know, flushing toilets and all. Because it’s all of that other kind of work that is involved in making something a final space, that costs again as much – if not more than that. So what this would be about working with people, with certain kinds of funding that I can raise as an artists, with grants to an individual or to an artist or someone working with the community, to create the form, the framework. The basic concept.
 
A new kind of architecture?
 
Well a collaborative sort of work rather than some guy saying “well this is it”. “Like it or leave the country”; “love it or leave it”.
 
But these buildings, are they not very expensive – the ground? They have no more value? So you can buy them?
 
They have very little value. Say, for 10.000 dollars you can have one or two. I think what we would do is form a group of people, and buy one or two. And then, instead of going out and buying all new materials, use salvaged things from industry, things salvaged from different kind of areas where they have materials, and use that, adapt various kinds of available…
 
It’s very realistic?
 
Yeah, more realistic than… It sounds realistic; getting it done is another game altogether.
 
Also you need people to live in it?
 
Yeah, you have to keep very much in touch with people to make it come alive. Otherwise it just turns into another sculpture. But I’m willing… Let’s say that, my complete guess is that if one created with a few people, let’s say, not the whole community, one created a space …situation. And once that has started happening, if one could get the next step further, which is to find some extra money to make it liveable. Then I think that more people would come into it. I suspect that things do not happen on a certain scale until they have been proven on a smaller scale.
 
And what’s the relation with the things you are making now? And these project – is it preparation?
 
There is a certain attitude about opening space up, or keeping space flexible in experience, rather than the kind of rigidity that most architectural enclosures or structures relate to. Especially in a domestic environment where short of having a little box on a little piece of land, in an urban context, you have this incredible cellular repetition, this sort of modular thinking. And I think that, although modules of some kind, living spaces of some kind are essential and inevitable. Let’s say the transition, or the kind of space that you could share with other people outside of your module is very limited and highly unanimated. Because, for example, in modern so-called pedestrian-oriented techniques – let’s say “plaza” – you have a pedestrian mall, but the majority of the time, because most of those malls are related to commercial activities – stores and various kind of streetlife – that as soon as those stores are closed….
 
In fact it’s same with those… (inaudible)
 
But the thing is, here, the idea of how to animate space. And how to share, how to create a space that… But this would be inside, so that the idea would be that it would be a space that, say, during the winter months, and during the times of year when it’s not possible to have a mall or whatever it is, this thing could be used somehow.
 
But I suppose there are a little of people in the States who are busy with the same problem. Or try to revolve the same…. Well, it looks a fundamental need, even for the organism of the human being.
 
Of course, it’s not even a very original idea. I don’t think of it as…. There’s nothing that I’m concerned with..
 
(…)
 
To make something happen that does imply…. that sort of restates the problem. For example, it is a very simple thing, the idea of creating a central space, like the atrium, you know. It is as old as the meditarianian. People would always have some space or the forum, or wheter kinds of commeeting situations existed. That has always been there. But I think that, to a great extent because of industrial scale, that that idea doesn’t really happen. Because if your down-town situation is a real urban situation, sure then people will pass through it and they will sit in it on a sunny day. But it doesn’t have anything to do with people sharing very much of anything – it’s just a space. Where I think that, let’s say, in an urban high-rise, it is possible to create spaces. Assuming that the people are working together, which is the essential part, they have something they share together. Like the all share the experience of making the building, they share the experience of owning the space, and having a similar kind of neighbourhood identity, then I think some kind of transformation would be possible. The issue is of course economics and much of that problem is based on having to build new buildings and then everyone paying for some kind of collective space. Which I think is, I hope – I’m not sure – is altered somewhat in this building situation. Because the building’s, the actual real estate’s value has fallen so far, that it allows for some range of experimentation which did not really exist before. It is sort of like: as the old, complete exploiting economy disintegrates, some kind of new idea can rise out of it, you know?
 
Yes, that’s fantastic to start with.
 
Yeah, I think it’s a possibility that then can be charged with more rational, more specific problem-solving techniques. But the idea of always going somewhere new rather than just rebuilding the old: I think that’s really the process. But of course it is very different than what I’m doing here. Because I think that what’s happens in a way is that artistic activities for me have more to do with pointing in certain directions, indicating, let’s say, a way of looking, or a way of thinking. It’s aspects, just like drawing. But rather than drawing, I make spatial events because it’s more immediate.
 
For example, for this movie we are making now. Shall we start with the aspects, or shall we try to mix some, integrate some aspects in this sense?
 
I think it’s hard to do until the next stage has happened. But I think that, let’s say, this film will be in what I hope will develop, an important aid in as much as it has a number of projects in it, which indicate different kinds of spatial attitudes. I think that we certainly can deal with the attitude, and to some extent deal with… The problem with film is that, for example even what we are recording now, there is no time to get that much information down on the film. So you have to more or less indicate (…) certain simple statements, like the reason I deal with cities, the reason I deal with architecture because I think that there are many things that can be and should be played with, remodified or reconsidered in that process.
 
You have half an hour or twenty minutes, it’s a lot of time to expose something.
 
You see, the reaction I got in doing lectures and stuff is that people usually don’t believe you when you say that what you are doing has a certain kind of meaning. Unless what you are doing already incorporates those issues, right? Well you can say “I’m dealing with social or urban events” – you can say that, but no one will believe you until you are really dealing with them. And I think that is one of the basic problems between an involvement with the social issues and involvement with the artistic issues.
 
But for example, what I could take as a basic point to make the structure for this film, is putting central how to go through space, how to feel space, how to recreate a space…?
 
But how to liberate space is really… That has really been always one of the things that I have been interested in. And liberating space means… Say, in the past project for me, liberating space means transforming a certain kind of conventional enclosure into something where, if nothing else, light and air pass through it. The other implications, or the ones that is much harder to justify, that is the idea that that attitude can then be projected into the urban experience in a variety of ways, and with far more extensive meanings. Like for example, there is always a situation where somebody comes and designs a particular space for people to enjoy. The whole nature of that, I think, there is an obvious modern crisis in terms of what design is and who design it for whom, and what things get integrated into that process. But in addition to the fact that there is a real desperity, a real lack of communication and exchange in the design process, there is also certain vocabularies which I find completely archaic and basically impoverished vocabularies. Spatial vocabularies do not exist. So the work that I am involved in is exploring vocabuliers, spatial techniques which are interesting to me. Beyond that, I can’t make any real statement, except that they are a kind of vocabulary, which can then be applied to a number of things…
 
Your real connections, the thing you are really sure about, let’s say the aspects. It’s kind of an ambition of you to make the global space and to give it a social integration.
 
Well it would fantastic to get to the next stage, which seems to me to be working with people who would experience it. There is a general condition in art which seems to be its isolation basically from people in their lives. One goes to art fairs and views art as a historical remnant, always seperated from some living experience. And I think to some extent, many aspects of it will always remain seperate.
 

In the near future we will implement the screening pages on this website. As for now you will have to follow one of the links below to get to the films.  Both are available in full HD (16mm remastered) / 30 mins / English spoken for only 3$.

My summer 77 with Gordon Matta-Clark

A Jacob’s Ladder, remembering Gordon Matta-Clark

“In 1977, Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, 1943-1978) was invited by the ICC in Antwerp to work on the intervention Office Baroque.

At this time, filmmaker Cherica Convents realized the documentary film Office Baroque. Later during that year, she followed Matta-Clark while he worked on Jacob’s Ladder for Documenta 6 in Kassel.

Thirty-five years later, Cherica Convents has rediscovered unseen excerpts from that film footage. The material shows a thoughtful and talkative Gordon Matta-Clark who, nevertheless, is submerged in brute, hard and physical labour. In the film Summer 77, the camera registers him as if in a dance, an architectural speculation, translated to what the artist himself calls an atmosphere of ‘dust, ruins, hardship and spatial complexity’.

After restoring the original film, Office Baroque, and after creating Summer 77 in 2012, Cherica Convents decided to finally finish the full edit and production of Jacob’s Ladder. Both 30-minute documentary films are an excellent source for in-depth study of one of the 20th Century’s most influential artists.

The films were presented on 20 March 2013 in Cinema Zuid, followed by a conversation between Cherica Convents and Flor Bex, moderated by Stefaan Vervoort.”   ( go to the original ARTtube page )

ARTtube on Gordon Matta-Clark’s world premiere (ENG subs.)

+ extra interview with Flor Bex about Gordon (ENG subs.)

OFFICE BAROQUE
1977-78 – 16 mm, edited version of the original A/B rolls, restored and digitized in 2012 – 42 min.

MY SUMMER ‘77 WITH GORDON MATTA-CLARK
2012 – based upon original 16mm ‘rest rushes’ (so far unused images) and sound around Office Baroque, digitized, digitally edited and post-produced – 30 min.

A JACOB’S LADDER, REMEMBERING GORDON MATTA-CLARK
2012-2013 – based upon the original 16mm ‘full rushes’ of the Jacob’s Ladder shoots and sound, digitized, digitally edited and post-produced – 35 min.

All three films where shot on 16 mm colour reversal film in Europe (Belgium and Germany, 1977) by Cherica Convents.

1/ OFFICE BAROQUE

The Office Baroque movie was originally filmed on 16 mm and we used this 16mm technology that was available at the time to do the editing, grading, special effects and the sound mix. It was the summer of 1977, and my focus was Gordon Matta-Clark’s Office Baroque project and the creative process behind it, in particular the artist’s approach to exploring, marking and cutting the building. The filmic approach we used was direct and honest but, in terms of the complexity of Gordon’s final intervention, it was also selective and subjective – rather like the experience of visiting the building itself. And although the basic intervention plan for Office Baroque was very simple and clear on paper, Gordon’s interior cuts gave rise to fragmentary images and views that were disorientating in terms of being able to establish a position within the building.

During the first screenings of our material in September 1977, and as we’d anticipated during filming, it was evident that the shots lacked ‘cohesion’. A good structural editing solution wasn’t immediately obvious. Most of our images where shot during Gordon’s execution of his work and, with the exception of the images of the roof, there were no general views of the intervention. We therefore planned an additional session, with the aim of being somewhat more objective, coherent and fluid in our approach towards capturing images of the final results of Gordon’s work. We also wanted to take each level of the building into account. In so doing, we hoped that people would watch the film and be able to reconstruct a kind of ‘global’ image, or overview, of the entire structural intervention and of what it was like to be inside Office Baroque.

To achieve this, we made a large number of extra wide-angle panoramic views throughout the entire building, and on every level. This was in late 1977, during October and November, and after Gordon had returned to New York. These images, combined with the action shots we’d recorded earlier, worked out very well during editing as we could mix the two different kinds of atmospheres. As Gordon once told me, “nothing is worth documenting if it is not difficult to get.” Thus the ‘un-documentable’ piece was finally documented! Gordon never saw the result.

The soundtrack is created by André Stordeur, and was composed directly using video images after the first cut results of the 16 mm film editing. The intention was to create a sound that would mirror the exploration Gordon made by ‘liberating’ space in the building. Also included is an interview with Flor Bex (in Dutch) that situates the ‘avant-garde’ position of Gordon during that particular period and an off line sound fragment in which Gordon explains his intervention (in English).

2/ HISTORY

In order to fully understand why I subsequently made the other two documentaries, and this web publication, I need to tell you the story of how I met Gordon in the summer of ’77, and how our working relationship evolved.

It was Flor Bex, the director/curator of the International Cultural Centre (ICC) in Antwerp, who asked me, in April 1977, if I would be interested in making a film about the intervention Gordon Matta-Clark was planning for the centre. The ICC was, at that time, a unique place for avant-garde art, and artists from all over the world created and exhibited there. In the past, I’d made creative, underground films but, by this time, I was focusing more and more on my work as an independent filmmaker. I was also teaching special effect camera recordings (16 mm and 35 mm) and animation techniques at the Brussels film art institute, RITCS. Although the ICC was the first art institute in Belgium to show an interest in using modern video techniques, in those days it wasn’t yet possible to make a colour video documentary on location for a reasonable price.

Flor Bex showed me images of Gordon’s early interventions in the USA and of Conical Intersect in Paris. I was immediately interested. I especially loved the ‘space and light’ experiences that Gordon created by his cuttings. I also appreciated the social dimension and the reactions of people in the street – something that Gordon particularly sought through his interventions. In my student days, I’d worked with many newsgathering crews and I loved this direct, interventionist approach. Neither the ICC, nor Gordon, could offer us a budget – so we decided to produce the film ourselves.

I already owned the 16 mm camera and the sound and lighting equipment needed to start such a project and, by teaming up with a friend from my student days, Roger Steylaerts, it became a co-production. Roger lived in Antwerp and felt at home in the ICC. Flor Bex put in a good word for us and, as a result, we managed to get rolls of 16 mm colour film (and the promise of free development) from Agfa-Gevaert in Antwerp. Thanks to a period of work experience, and experiments that I’d made with their film emulsions, I also had close contacts with the people working in the company’s research department. We started filming in early May 1977 and, with the exception of the Agfa-Gevaert donation, we began in the old, independent filmmaking tradition. Gordon worked in the same spirit: we both had a concept in mind, and we both accepted that we sometimes had to change our attitude towards a project if circumstances dictated it!

Gordon wasn’t a filmmaker in the sense that I was. The few films I’ve seen of his seemed, to me, to be more like moving photographs: one shot after the other taken to document actions or situations. Formally, his film work is more in the American underground tradition.

We therefore made our working relationship very clear from the start: Gordon would execute his project and use his Nikon F camera to take his own documentary photographs, as he was used to doing. He would use these photographs to create the art works he exhibited later on. Gordon photographed in black and white, as well as in colour, but he used only one camera body. At that time, the 35 mm still camera he used was a very popular model among reporters and action photographers.

The film was basically shot with a French 16 mm Beaulieu movie camera. I’d found, from experience, that it was better not to switch to a photographic approach when tackling a project in a filmic way. I therefore never took a still camera with me whilst filming. If I really wanted to take photographs, I borrowed any camera that happened to be available. Gordon himself, who was usually busy with his intervention, also separated his ‘actions’ and his photographic approach. But he managed to take pictures with his Nikon during calmer moments. And, from time to time, he actually planned photography sessions. Quite often, when he was working, he too would grab any still camera that he could find.

Many photographers feel the impulse to capture a vision on the spot, something that is more important to them than the ownership of the image. But, strangely enough, as far as I can remember, I never touched Gordon’s camera – and he never touched my movie camera.

In fact, during the shoots, our working habits were very complementary and we never had any problems in terms of our approach. Of course, it wasn’t possible to be there all the time and we more or less planned each day’s filming: the film crew would shoot interesting visual developments during the working process.

Gordon used the Cibachrome colour process, a photographic paper print technique that preserves the colour pigments much longer than is the case with classic colour prints – and he had a colour lab in his loft in New York. He needed it so that he could create photographic collages that would last. In Belgium, I too had a colour lab in my home. In those days we didn’t care very much about the rather dangerous chemicals that we were using in enclosed spaces.

We talked about what we were doing, of course. Our collaboration was very fluid and we respected each other. Gordon was ambitious, but cooperative, and possessed a very strong, empathic mind. I was rather intuitive. Gordon was seven years older than me and he had a tremendous amount of creativity and savoir vivre, as well as experience and an understanding of reality. But, essentially, we understood each other without words. Gordon had a great deal of equilibrium: his yin and yang energy forces were very well developed and balanced. Once, when he was going through my alchemy books, he told me that our interests appeared to be very similar. Of my many spiritual fathers, Gordon was certainly one.

3/ FILMING AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS

We started by capturing the atmosphere of the building, which was located near the River Scheldt in a very touristy part of Antwerp. Gordon began by lining up his first approach to the building: his initial plan for the Office Baroque cut was a ‘partial sphere’. But after weeks of struggling with the authorities, the city administration finally halted the development and execution of the art project.

At the end of May, a meeting was held in my house in Diest, Belgium, to discuss how to proceed. Gordon showed us his new, second Office Baroque project: a kind of ‘triangular’ cutting intervention. From the south side of the roof, it was like a slightly distorted tetrahedron and it wasn’t really visible from the outside. Despite the fact that, over the years, I’d been engaged in research about the energy and symbolism of the tetrahedron, one of the Platonic solids, I was slightly disappointed. I felt that this form, and the way that Gordon had to imply it through the roof (due to the building restrictions imposed by the city administration) too obvious. The social feedback wouldn’t occur so easily, and this was an important trigger for me to make the film. I loved the idea that the global ‘image’ of the intervention wouldn’t just be created through individual awareness – actually visiting the work, and experiencing it step by step – but also through the perspective of ‘outsiders’. We kept on talking and Gordon began to explain his ideas for the entire summer period and for his tenement, or ‘ghost’ buildings – something he planned to work on afterwards in New York. I was incredibly enthusiastic and proposed to Gordon, on the spot, that I follow him throughout the entire summer, and use this experience to structure the film. Gordon was delighted and immediately came up with the name for this more global documentary approach: ‘Summer ‘77’.

That summer, besides Office Baroque in Antwerp, Gordon was also planning a project for Documenta 6 in Kassel. He also wanted to create another project in Antwerp, this time for the harbour. He was planning it for late summer and would call it Crane Ballet or Crane Works.

We filmed the creation of his work in Kassel with just one assistant, a project that became known as Jacob’s Ladder. Afterwards, we continued filming the third and final phase of the Office Baroque project. This third phase is well known: the two circles inspired by the imprints of glass coffee cups on a table, and the cut out sections that Gordon joked were like ‘ships’ or ‘tuna fish’. But now, for the first time in his ‘cutting’ period, Gordon made real project plans on paper, but he still improvised a lot on site. He had a ‘hidden agenda’ with this intervention: the second opening in the roof that was only partially worked out through the two upper levels. He also created a semi-circular cut in the wall near the opening of the second roof axis: it ran from a tiny, warm, sunny south-facing upper room to the main axis of the intervention. The way he treated this second axis will always be, in my opinion, one of life’s most beautiful mysteries: the way he made the semi-circular opening in a side wall, orientated on the vertical, as a secret way to unite dualities on the level above.

Gordon never really commented on it, but one could guess that it was probably connected with the death of his twin brother, Batan, only a year before. Gordon also showed us pictures of the square cuts that he had made in the floor at Yvon Lambert’s gallery in Paris in honour of Batan. The city of Antwerp’s administrative regulations prevented Gordon from creating an Office Baroque intervention that was visible from the street outside. As a result, he wasn’t able to use what he called ‘a one shot vision’ to communicate in a socially direct way with people in the street. Forced to work inside, his attention turned to the idea of inner communication, and the ‘tunas’ he later exposed outside the building were like silent, complementary, ‘moulded’ material witnesses. But of course, he also made two perfect circular openings through the roof that were not, at first sight, visible from the outside – and yet he never kept a material complement of those!

By the time he died, Gordon had used the formal concept of a ‘sphere’ on numerous occasions. To the best of my knowledge, however, he began using it during the first Office Baroque cutting attempt. His initial project for Documenta 6, which involved four chimneys, was also based on this concept. In both cases, his plans didn’t work out. Gordon always insisted on the curve that Jacob’s Ladder would form, hanging by it’s own weight. He finally used this concept, further developed into a partial spiral energy form, in his last cutting intervention: Circus, or The Caribbean Orange (USA).

It’s a pity that Gordon didn’t have enough time to execute the Crane Ballet project in Antwerp that year. His idea was to take several old cranes in the harbour near the river and to use them to create a moving, dynamic net structure. Gordon often liked to talk about his ideas for creating what he called ‘stage like environments’. He discussed this a lot, particularly in connection with this project, but also during the creation of Office Baroque and in respect of his future tenement building projects in New York. In 2012, on the occasion of a special meal in Antwerp, which later came to be known as the ‘Carpaccio dinner’, François Vereesen told me that Gordon also played with the idea of using balloons to lift houses, a concept related to his later Sky Hooks drawings.

The idea behind the global documentary Summer ‘77 was to explain, over the course of one summer, all of Gordon’s ideas and projects – those that were executed and those that weren’t.

To finally tell this story, and to support the distribution of our film, we’ve created this website. In time, we will also make unedited sound fragments and interviews available on line in order to better illustrate what was planned and what was actually executed.

Gordon was evolving from socially inspired performances, via his ‘anarchitectural’ cutting art period, towards a new, socially engaged form of architecture, based on his former experiences by liberating space. He considered the lost, old tenement buildings in New York to be a unique opportunity, both financially and architecturally, to create totally new living conditions.

4 / GORDON FALLING ILL

At the end of 1977, Gordon’s health compelled us to concentrate on finishing just the Office Baroque film, since his Antwerp intervention was, without a shadow of doubt, his masterpiece. Roger told me that Gordon was very impatient to see the results, and had even asked for the rushes. Of course, we didn’t agree: it was our movie and I was worried about how Gordon might use our images. I was also confronted with the fact that the more global documentary movie, which is what I believed I was making, couldn’t go on. I had to ‘restructure’ the documentary again, this time focusing on Office Baroque as an artwork. We decided to use only the first ‘partial spherical cut’ attempt and the final intervention. Without a budget, it was difficult to finish the production using our own means. But with our underground production experience, the help of many friends in the film world, personal investments and a loan for a second hand 16 mm editing table, we finally managed. The Office Baroque documentary was completed in September 1978, about 10 months after the last shoot in October/ November 1977. It was projected in the ICC, just after Gordon left us. The film had taken a long time to complete but, in the pre-digital era, that was normal.

5/ AFTER GORDON’S DEATH

After Gordon’s sudden death, I kept all of the original film material in my archives. I wasn’t very happy about the way things had finally worked out. We had worked really hard to finish the film and I’d invested all of my personal money into organising the post-production. But everybody had hidden the fact that Gordon was so terribly sick from me, and I didn’t even know that this was why he was so impatient to see the film. Also Gordon never once told me how ill he was. The movie was as good as finished when he died: I was waiting for the final show copy so that I could transcribe the magnetic sound. It was an incredibly difficult time for me.

We only ever had one 16 mm show copy, which was delivered with a verbal license to the ICC for the copy costs. We had invested an enormous amount of time and money in this project. But the 16 mm show copy was projected so many times that we made a low quality U-Matic video copy – on rare occasions we even sold it. The film was also shown in America but, at that time, we couldn’t find a distributor. I was used to losing money on the majority of my movie productions, so the Office Baroque project wasn’t an exception.

When I went to America shortly afterwards, I stopped in New York to visit Gordon’s loft. Gordon’s widow, Jane Crawford let me in, and I remember her telling me that she didn’t live there. The atmosphere was dark and cold, and the place was filled with Gordon’s photographs and art works. I felt terrible and left after ten minutes. I relegated Gordon, and the whole story, to the depths of my subconscious.

In 2002, Flor Bex asked me to preserve the 16 mm originals of the Office Baroque film and to ensure that they were kept in the best possible conditions. We arranged an archive and distribution agreement for the original ‘negative’ edited A/B rolls with Argos, a Belgian distribution organisation for art films. They promised to digitize the film and to preserve and distribute it in a modern way. In 2005, an English version (with dubbed sound and an adapted soundtrack) suddenly appeared in America and, as a result, the work at Argos was put on hold. Nobody had contacted me, Roger, or even Flor Bex, about this edition – it therefore had to be an illegal adaptation from a show copy. An enquiry was set in motion and Ronny Vissers, a Belgian independent researcher, endeavoured to find out what had happened and who owned the rights. When it became clear that the American version was illegal, at least according to Belgian law, Argos finally digitized the originals during the spring of 2012, while I directed the new digital grading in the lab.

6/ A NEW START

In early 2012, I was invited to a meeting at Flor Bex’s house. Roger was also invited, as was François Vereesen, Gordon’s personal assistant during the execution of Office Baroque in 1977. We were there to meet Carles Guerra, the chief curator of MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Barcelona. He wanted to interview Flor Bex and François, who had assisted Gordon during the creation of his Office Baroque project in Antwerp, as well as the team that had made the original Office Baroque film. MACBA was preparing an exhibition about Gordon Matta-Clark and Office Baroque for June that year. Carles Guerra suggested that I check my old Office Baroque sound recordings to see if there was any additional material.

Harold Berg, who introduced himself as an art ‘transformer’ collector specialising in Gordon Matta-Clark, accompanied Carles. When I told Harold that I had more material about Gordon in my archives, he was very enthusiastic – it was as though I’d told him about some buried treasure. On the occasion of the ‘Carpaccio dinner’, which took place that weekend in Antwerp, I gave him a working copy (without sound) of an early, 16 mm, raw edit of Jacob’s Ladder. I’d tried out this partial editing, without the interviews, in late 1978. As nobody seemed interested in the film footage in those days, I’d put it aside. We always experimented, and made our final edits, on a copy made from the originals (printed on ‘one light’ without colour corrections). When we were ready, we made a parallel ‘negative’ cut from the originals and then moved on with the production process. During those early days, nobody was interested at all in my Jacob’s Ladder film material and so the originals remained untouched. Over the course of the following month, Harold became increasingly enthusiastic and we planned to work together on a completely new digital edit. We digitized the original 16 mm film material that I’d found in my archives. This, coupled with Argos finally deciding to digitize the old Office Baroque film, made it feel as though Gordon had come to life again. By now, my memories of those days were beginning to feel more positive.

Since Harold had Chilean roots, like Gordon, he had undertaken investigative research in that direction. He told me a great deal about Gordon’s life, his short but inspiring career, and his renewed contemporary importance. It was through Harold that I once again began to take an interest in Gordon – in his work and as a person. I needed to work in Barcelona but my health wasn’t good and so, after a while, Harold suggested that I take over the complete production in Belgium. Harold’s enthusiasm and his love for Gordon had infected me. I also felt that I had a duty towards Gordon to make all of my material available. I explored all of the original material from the several shoots, including all of the unused frames, and also digitized all of the remaining sound material from the original sound tapes. I started looking for a good editor, someone with whom I would feel comfortable working.

Steven Perceval, a rather young but very inspired editor, was the right person. Some years ago, Steven had founded a new ‘media facility house’ in Antwerp: AAP Media. It was close to my home. And even more importantly, the personal engagement he demonstrated during the editing was proof enough that a younger, contemporary generation could be interested in rediscovering Gordon’s projects. With Steven’s young blood and creativity behind the editing controls, we managed to finish two more films about Gordon’s projects in less then seven months.

7/ MY SUMMER ‘77 WITH GORDON MATTA-CLARK

Summer ‘77 is, in fact, mainly composed of ‘rest rushes’ (so far unused images) from the original 16 mm Office Baroque film shoots of 1977. These were then digitized. Many of the more subjective images of Gordon’s work weren’t used in the original edited version of the Office Baroque film because, by that time, the focus had shifted onto showing the artwork in a visual and structural way. We also had a large amount of unexplored sound material left over. It was this that gave me the idea to allow Gordon to explain his vision in depth. In 2012, I decided to structure this new film, Summer ‘77, purely around Gordon’s own words. He loved to talk about his projects and, thanks to the approach we’d taken towards the sound back then, it’s possible to remain connected to Gordon’s ideas and his innermost reflections throughout the entire film.

This new documentary is therefore a kind of an addendum to the original Office Baroque film. In it, the Office Baroque story is told a second time, only this time from the perspective of Gordon’s innermost experiences. In making this film, we were guided by Gordon’s energy, enthusiasm and genius.

Both films, Office Baroque and Summer ‘77, are very complementary. I have also integrated certain images of another project that Gordon realised that year at Documenta 6 in Kassel: Jacob’s Ladder. I did, in fact, follow Gordon throughout his European summer of ‘77 – from the moment that he made his first spherical cut in Antwerp and his subsequent intervention in Kassel.

In June 2012, MACBA in Barcelona organised an important exhibition about Gordon Matta-Clark. The newly restored, original version of our Office Baroque film was projected on a continuous loop. The museum also reawakened interest in Gordon’s first spherical cutting approach, made during the creation of Office Baroque. The première of Summer ‘77 took place at the end of the exhibition, on 10 October 2012, in MACBA. In mid-October of the same year, another exhibition around Gordon opened in M HKA, Antwerp.

It became very clear to me that Gordon’s Jacob’s Ladder was underexposed due to a lack of film material. After the restoration of the original Office Baroque, and after the making of Summer ‘77, I decided, in October 2012, to finally finish the editing and post-production work on Jacob’s Ladder.

8/ A JACOB’S LADDER, REMEMBERING GORDON MATTA-CLARK

I’d wanted to edit these images for a very long time. They were shot in June 1977 in a dynamic, reportage style. In the past, there hadn’t really been any interest in this film within the art world. The Jacob’s Ladder project had taken place in the grounds of an old factory outside the boundaries of the official Documenta 6 exhibition in Kassel. Gordon had said that his work needed to have a degree of distance from the atmosphere of a big art exhibition, something that he perceived as being like a ‘Fritz Lang art metropolis zoo’. For Gordon, art was a way of making people more aware of their environment in everyday life. It was for this reason that he preferred to work outside the museum boundaries. And of course, his focus for this project was upon the tall, industrial chimneys that could be found in Kassel.

Gordon defined Jacob’s Ladder as being the result of an idea about ‘drawing in space, rather than drawing through things’. He also said that he’d always wanted to do a ‘chimney’, and that the ‘chimneys’ he’d done before were more like cuttings! Let’s not forget that a chimney, in itself, is an artificial, man-made tunnel that transmits air into the sky. Jacob’s Ladder is as an artistic and more spiritually oriented ‘mirror’ of the classic ‘material’ concept of a chimney – to the point where it almost vanishes into infinity. It’s stunning to realise that cosmic reality is dominated by endless emptiness. This is why Gordon’s vision, which he developed through his cuts and other interventions, such as Jacob’s Ladder, is so important.

In Jacob’s Ladder, Gordon isolated, by means of a triangular net structure, a tunnel of ‘empty’ space in the air. He called this process ‘liberating’ space. Jacob’s Ladder was about liberating space by occupying existing, free space, seemingly the opposite of liberating space by cutting through existing structures, as in Office Baroque. Yet there isn’t really any fundamental difference between his cutting acts and his Jacob’s Ladder construction, simply because the tunnel of emptiness that he created is, in essence, not very different from the openings, cuts and tunnels that he made by cutting through buildings.

With Jacob’s Ladder, a stairway to heaven, Gordon compels us to confront, with complete clarity, the symbolic and practical meaning of ‘liberated space’ and it’s cosmic potential. In this work he offers us a visual and ‘tactile’ concept that explores the balance between material and spiritual reality on a human scale.

Gordon also loved the idea that people would climb into his stairway. The visitors were also invited to physically explore this dimension of the work. In this case, of course, it was a rather dangerous experience. Children loved Gordon’s intervention, and they were always the first to ask to explore his work: this was undoubtedly because of their ability to wonder and to play. When discussing Crane Ballet, a planned but unrealised project, Gordon told us, with a big smile, that since he wasn’t familiar with the crane handle manipulations he’d let children operate the controls – and that the children would teach him what to do.

Gordon has played such an important role in art history and yet Jacob’s Ladder is still relatively unknown. It’s Jacob’s Ladder, however, that helps us to better understand his Sky Hooks drawings from 1978 (his last project). Made just before he died, these drawings form part of the MACBA collection and, the way I see it now, they are the clearest possible evidence of Gordon’s genius.

The curators and directors, Carles Guerra (MACBA) and Bart De Baere (M HKA), as well as Flor Bex (former director of the ICC and M HKA) and Harold Berg (‘Max’), stimulated me to finish this editing.

The post-production for both of these last two films was executed in close collaboration with our ‘creative’ editor, Steven Perceval from AAP Media in Antwerp. The soundtrack to Summer ‘77 is by Nico Staelens. The song for the A Jacob’s Ladder homage, as well as the soundtrack for the movie, is by Jan Verheyen.

9/ HOMAGE

In a way, Gordon dedicated Jacob’s Ladder to his twin brother Batan, who’d died the year before, in 1976. Nobody could have imagined, at the time, that the work would become a memorial to the artist himself. At the end of the film, you can see him standing, his hands holding on to the metal net, contemplating. Then letting go his hand and releasing his ladder – the ladder that is forever blowing in the wind.

Thirty-five years after his death, I’m grateful to be able to honour Gordon in this way and, no matter what happened, I also liked him very much as a person.

Gordon died in August 1978, following a pancreatic cancer. He was thirty-five.

For me, Gordon Matta-Clark will always be the man who, like a cosmic architect, used the eternal voice of the void.

Gordon was developing a new alphabet regarding social communication and the use of space.

He talked about his art activities as exploring spatial vocabularies that could be used in the situations in which we live. There is no doubt that Gordon, with the abandoned tenement buildings in New York, wanted to create new architectural structures so that people could live their everyday lives in a more cosmic and socially connected way.

How? By liberating space!

Cherica Convents /Antwerp, February 2013

On March 20, both films “My Summer 77 with Gordon Matta-Clark” & “A Jacob’s Ladder remembering Gordon Matta-Clark” were shown to the Belgian audience at Cinema Zuid, Antwerp.   The local museum of modern arts, M HKA, arranged this unique event focussing on the avant garde artist Gordon Matta-Clark. Gordon was a key character in M HKA’s founding history in the late 70′s and early 80′s.

Bart De Baere, director of M HKA opened the première and both films were introduced to the public by architectural & art researcher Stefaan Vervoort, in what he defined as “a historical moment“.  The packed audience was eager to enter Gordon’s universe. Art historian Johan Pas stated after the screening: “I always read about him being a very charismatic, dynamic & sensual, kind of rock-’n'-roll figure and now I truly witnessed how he really was. It’s great this footage got saved and now is shown to the public after 35 years by Cherica.”   Flor Bex, one of the main characters in the films & founding father of M HKA, was pleased to see such a young and enthusiastic audience. After the screenings, Stefaan Vervoort moderated a Q&A, with Flor Bex, former director of ICC and M HKA, and filmmaker Cherica Convents.

The night ended in a blast at UFO café allied to Cinema Zuid. Soundtrack composer Jan Verheyen and his band The House of Sun closed the evening with great blues vibrations & other liberating soundscapes. A night to be remembered, a journey to be started …

(Below you can watch “The ‘wrap up’ sessions” in the aftermath of the premiere screening in Antwerp)

# WRAP-UP SESSION 1 / WORLD PREMIERE NIGHT

# WRAP-UP SESSION 2 / FLOR BEX ABOUT SUMMER 77

Coming soon: more videos with in-depth interviews & footage.

event photos © 2013 Bram Goots / film stills © 2013 Cherica Convents

By time we will also gather interviews (video’s, sound recordings, …) from people who have known Gordon while he was working on his artworks in Europe in 1977.

The artwork Jacob’s Ladder was created by Gordon with the help of his German assistant and many others on industrial grounds outside the boundaries of the official Documenta 6 domain.

At Documenta 6 (1977), Kassel, Cherica was filming during the making of Gordon’s “Jacob’s Ladder”. She wanted to edit this images, filmed in June 77 in a  rather dynamic camera style, already a long time ago. There was never any interest from the art world in the past. Gordon defined his “Jacob’s Ladder” as a result of the idea of drawing in space, rather than drawing through things. Gordon told that he always wanted to do a ‘chimney’ and that the ‘chimneys’ before where more like cuttings.  Jacob’s Ladder was about liberating space by occupying free existing space, on the contrary of liberating space by cutting through existing structures, as in Office Baroque. After the restoration of the original Office Baroque movie and the making of Summer 77 in 2012, Cherica decided to finish the full editing and production work around Jacob’s Ladder. Gordon has played such an important role in art history and this project is still relatively unknown. Also Jacob’s Ladder gives us a better understanding for his very last project drawings from 78: the “Sky Hooks”.

We strongly believe in the universal message and the value of Gordon’s social engaged actions, art and architectural vision.

The film is now also available on Vimeo on demand, just follow this link.

Or watch the trailer below:

Author, producer & director : Cherica Convents
Creative Editing : Steven Perceval / AAP Media
Soundtrack : Jan Verheyen for nu music & image
Digital color grading : Dirk De Jonghe
Camera 16 mm recordings 1977 : Cherica Convents
Analogue sound recording 1977 : Dirk Geens
Interviews 1977 : Flor Bex
Dialogue equalization & graphics 2012 : Nico Staelens
Still photography : Flor & Cherica  (35 mm scans by M HKA)
Title song : The hour of the wolf performed by House of sun / guest vocal Sistaflex
Press & sales contact : Laura D’Halleweyn

AAP Media is responsible for the international distribution of the film. If you have any questions about screening, buying or hiring the film: send us an email. We are working on a dedicated distribution page for future requests.

In May of 1977, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) was invited by the director Flor Bex from the “International Cultural Centre (ICC)” in Antwerp / Belgium, and spent most of the summer of 1977 working on Office Baroque. 

My Summer 77 actually was made mainly using 16mm digitized image rest rushes originals of the Office Baroque shooting in 1977. A lot of this more subjective images around Gordon were not really used in the first original editing of the Office Baroque cutting. My Summer 77 focusses more on showing the artwork as such in a visual, structural way.

There existed also a lot of unexplored sound material from the shootings, and this gave Cherica the idea to let Gordon explain his vision in depth.

Cherica wanted to structure this new Summer 77 movie in 2012 only around Gordon’s own words. Gordon loved to comment his projects. Because of this initial sound approach, we stay during the entire documentary in touch with Gordon’s idea and his inner approach and reflexions. This new documentary movie is therefore an addendum to the first original Office Baroque movie. The Office Baroque story is told a second time, more from Gordon’s inner point of experience. This way we are guided by his energetic enthusiasm and genius.

Cherica integrated also some images of another project Gordon realised that year in Kassel, during Documenta 6, his “Jacob’s Ladder”. In fact, after Gordon’s initial sphere approach in Antwerp, she wanted to follow Gordon during several interventions he planned to make in that European summer 77.

The film shows a kind and talkative Gordon Matta-Clark. The film camera captures what the artist himself describes as a “dust, ruins, depravity and spatial complexity”. This 30-minute long film is an extraordinary source for analysing one of the most iconic artists of the 20^th century in depth. Director Cherica Convents teamed up with creative editor Steven Perceval to realise this film.

The film is now also available on Vimeo on demand, just follow this link.

Or watch the trailer below :

Author, producer & Director / Cherica Convents
Creative Editing / Steven Perceval
Sound & title Music / Nico Staelens
Digital color grading / Dirk De Jonghe
Camera 16 mm recordings 1977 / Cherica Convents
Analogue sound recordings 1977 / Dirk Geens & Roger Steylaerts
Press & sales contact / Laura D’Halleweyn
Distribution / AAP Media

“I’m pretty sure everybody will appreciate this incredible document. Wow!!! You’re bringing Gordon back to life, you make him look like a dancer acting both through his body and his own words.”
(Carles Guerra / Chief curator MACBA)

AAP Media is responsible for the international distribution of the film. If you have any questions about screening, buying or hiring the film: send us an email. We are working on a dedicated distribution page for future requests.

Tickets can be orderred on the website of Cinema Zuid.

What to expect ?

This website is a public tool and can be used by everyone including museums, schools, Gordon fanatics, architects & art lovers that want to reconstruct Gordon’s summer of 77.  Starting point is Cherica Convents’ personal story. As a filmmaker she was very close with the artist during this period.  Now 35 years later she wants to share her experience before she leaves us to join Gordon in the hereafter. For instance Cherica rediscovered several never unveiled sound recordings when Gordon visited her home to talk about her film project involving Gordon. This exclusive sound material will be hosted for free on this platform. In 1977 she intended to realise a film covering the whole summer of 77, due to several reasons this never got realised. This website is intented to realise Cherica’s dream & transports her initial idea into the 21st century by replacing this idea of a film into an interactive website dedicated to the European summer of 1977. We are also planning to built a ‘screening room’ on this platform where you can watch all 3 films regarding his European period (Office Baroque, My summer 77, A Jacob’s Ladder) for a small fee. Enjoy the ride !