"Intersection Conique" Gordon Matta-Clark

1975-2006, 17 min, b&w, sound

In September 1975, photographer and videomaker Marc Petitjean documented Matta-Clark in the process of making one of his major "building cuts" in Paris. Created for the 1975 Paris Biennale, Matta-Clark's Conical Intersect was a spiraling cone-shaped cut through a pair of 17th-century buildings at 27-29 rue Beaubourg. Slated for demolition as part of the "urban renewal" of the Les Halles district, the buildings were adjacent to the construction site of the controversial Centre Pompidou. Petitjean, who had been photographing the transformation of the neighborhood, records Matta-Clark's two-week process of cutting the large conical void in the buildings. In an interview at the site, Matta-Clark speaks (in French) about the idea of making a "son et lumiere," and the void as a means of "understanding of all that's missing."

In French with English subtitles.

Entretien: Elisabeth Lubovici. Realisation: Marc Petitjean.