A evening dedicated to visual and sound imagination that spans a century of experimentation. On the occasion of the centenary of Erik Satie‘s death (1925–2025), the program begins with the screening of two short films by Man Ray, an icon of the Dada movement: Emak Bakia (1926) and L’Étoile de Mer (1928). These works, free from any narrative constraints, evoke pure, visionary cinema built on abstract suggestions, randomness, and poetic fragments. Emmanuel Rudnitsky, known as Man Ray (Philadelphia, 1890 – Paris, 1976), was one of the leading figures of 20th-century artistic avant-garde. After establishing himself as a photographer in New York, he moved to Paris in the early 1920s, where he became part of the vibrant avant-garde artistic community. There, he formed relationships with figures like Picasso, Cocteau, and Éluard, and actively participated in Dadaist experiments, sharing their spirit of provocation and breaking with artistic conventions. His relationship with cinema began almost playfully, as he recounts in his autobiography, driven by the desire to “bring movement to photographs.” In the rebellious climate brought about by Dadaism, Man Ray had already experimented in 1921 with the rayograph technique: images created without a camera by directly exposing objects onto photosensitive paper. These “rayograms”—purely abstract and evocative—represent a liberation not only technical but also aesthetic for photography. His subsequent transition into cinema allowed him to extend this exploration, shaping a radically new visual language free from traditional storytelling and conventional logic. The short films on this program follow a dual order: chronological and formal, representing two crucial phases of his cinematic experimentation.

Emak Bakia (1926), literally meaning “Leave me alone” in Basque, represents a return to the randomness and fragmentation seen in Le Retour à la Raison, to the extent that it even includes some sequences from it. Man Ray describes it as a “cinema poem”: a succession of optical fragments, a visual abstraction interrupted by brief realistic inserts used as punctuation. It is neither an abstract film nor a complete narrative but a work that reflects on the very essence of cinematic language. At a time when silent cinema could last hours with long sequences of “invisible” dialogues, Man Ray advocates for twenty minutes dedicated to a visual experience of free association, not with the aim of revolutionizing industrial cinema but with the ambition of opening it to new possibilities.

L’Étoile de Mer (1928) marks Man Ray’s approach toward a form of poetic storytelling—rarefied yet present. The subject originates from a poem by Robert Desnos, given to Man Ray before a trip, with the commitment that he would turn it into a film during his absence. The result is a story suspended between dream and reality, centered on a starfish that Desnos kept in a jar beside his bed. The film, veiled in blurred images and transparencies, maintains a stronger emotional coherence while preserving the mystery and suggestion typical of surrealist cinema.

Live music – an improvisational dramaturgy

The musical accompaniment is conceived as an improvisational journey, guided by the principle of free association of ideas and sounds. This approach is ideally linked to Dada and Surrealist aesthetics, where the unconscious and chance become creative tools. The music will originate from a central “skeleton” taken from Erik Satie’s piano repertoire, thus recalling the characteristic sound of vintage cinema halls, where the piano was often the sole accompaniment. However, from this foundation, there develops a “fragmentation” of the musical material: motifs, chords, rhythmic structures are broken down and reworked through all the ensemble’s instruments, including electronic processing. The result is a continuous shift between synchronization and asynchrony with the film, balancing evocative fidelity to the historical context with free and daring interpretation. A visual and sonic play that pays homage to Man Ray’s very spirit.

The second part of the evening features Forest Swords, a British artist celebrated in experimental electronic circles, with his new live set (deconstructed). An immersion into enigmatic soundscapes composed of broken rhythms, sparse ambient textures, and distorted samples: an intimate and unsettling musical journey that moves between digital ruins and post-industrial sensibilities. This dual pathway explores visual and sonic languages that are distant yet interconnected, united by a shared tension toward the unusual and imaginary.