François Pain
François Pain is the director and author of numerous films on alternative psychiatry. A close associate of Félix Guattari, he worked for seven years at the La Borde clinic. He took part in the epic of free radio (1977/1981), co-founding the Fédération de Radios Libres Non Commerciales and Radio Tomate. Co-founder of “Canal Déchaîné” (1991) and “Chaosmédia” (1994), associations whose aim is to develop theoretical reflection on the theme of the media, as well as a different approach to audiovisual production and broadcasting.
Monument to Félix Guattari, the film
by François Pain, based on an idea by Jean-Jacques Lebel (1995, 90min)
This film was shot in 1994/95, on the occasion of the exhibition Hors Limites, L’art de la Vie at the Centre Pompidou, in and in front of Jean-Jacques Lebel’s large multimedia machine entitled Monument à Felix Guattari. Actively participating in this collective work were a large number of philosophers, artists, psychiatrists, musicians, poets, friends and collaborators of Guattari. They include Raymond Bellour / Jacqueline Cahen / Daniel Caux / Pascale Criton / Mony Elkaim / Paolo Fabbri / Robert Fleck / Allen Ginsberg / Edouard Glissant / Ilan Halevy / Bernard Heidsieck / Joël Hubaut / Françoise Janicot / Allan Kaprow / Jean- Pierre Klein / Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux / Pierre Levy / Made in Eric / Valérie Marange / Ouzi Deckel / Christine Piot / Serge Pey / Jean-Claude Pollack / Jérôme Rothenberg / Oreste Scalzone / René Scherer / Danielle Sivadon. They evoke schizoanalysis, anti-psychiatry, political and social revolution, the three ecologies, art, philosophy, linguistics, the work of Félix Guattari with Gilles Deleuze… Included in the montage, numerous filmed interventions by Félix Guattari complete this rhizomatic film prefigured by the dream he himself describes in the Monument. Monument à Félix Guattari is J.-J. Lebel’s affectionate, militant, moving and collective tribute to the man who was his close friend, his comrade in arms and his fundamental ally.
Min Tanaka at La Borde
by Joséphine Guattari and François Pain (1986, 25′)
“Together we embody a single body that belongs to no one, the body of the earth” Min Tanaka. “Atmospheric variation”, “imperceptible molecule”, from his “meteorological laboratory of the body”, the great Japanese butô dancer Tanaka Min, at once human and animal, mineral and vegetable, child and old man, madman and beggar, arouses the emotions of the residents of La Borde, and offers, through his chaotic dance, a unique experience that touches closely the collective unconscious and the secret forces of the universe.
