Joel Shapiro: 20 Elements

2005 / 56 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

Joel Shapiro, the eminent sculptor, was invited by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to participate in their project series titled Correspondences, the aim of which was to achieve new insights into the complexity of art through confronting some of the museum’s masterpieces with ambitious contemporary works. Shapiro chose to juxtapose Jean Baptiste Carpeaux’s La Danse, a large-scale manifestation of human sensuality which once adorned the exterior of the Paris Opera. The camera follows the assembly of  20 boldly colored wooden elements, a shining example of Shapiro’s brilliant use of joinery, as the artist and two assistants work on putting the sculpture together and placing it in just the right spot in relation to La Danse. The film represents a unique opportunity to meet the artist and experience a rare art historical event as historians and curators question him on the issues of this daring engagement with Carpeaux.