Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam is organizing the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra. The show is dedicated to Serra's 2019 film Liberté, which is set during the reign of Louis XVI, in the years preceding the outbreak of the French Revolution.

First premiering as a play at the Volksbühne in Berlin in 2018, the piece immediately caused a sensation because of its subject matter. The exhibition itself represents an attempt by Serra to reinterpret his work on the gallery floor by blending the theatrical and the cinematic, molding the space into an immersive stage that evokes the vibrant landscapes of rococo painters Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, combined with the contemporary atmosphere of cruising zones.

The film Liberté follows the nocturnal rendez-vous of a group of French aristocrats who have fled the conservative confines of the court of Louis XVI. Once they have gathered in a forest outside of Paris at the invitation of a Prussian nobleman – the legendary Duke of Walchen, whose libertine ways made him notorious – they set about engaging in various sexual acts which push the boundaries of conventional morals. Serra seeks to answer the questions: how far can we go in expanding the limits of freedom? Do we completely lose ourselves, subsuming our egos into a singularity?

Eye Filmmuseum is the premier cultural institution in the Netherlands dedicated to film. Their exhibition program presents leading artists that explore the intersection of visual art and cinema. Serra's exhibition opens on June 8 and runs through September 28, 2024. More information can be found here and here.

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