‘It must be possible to represent reality as the historical fiction that it is’, wrote Alexander Kluge in 1975. Marie Voignier’s work is con- stantly seeking to explore the intertwinement of imaginary and factual elements in reality itself. For instance, she follows a European cryptologist in his quest for a mythical animal in the middle of Cameroon’s jungle and min- gles with journalists seeking to construct an image of the ‘monster of Amstetten’ without having attended his trial; she explores the staged reality in a ‘tropical holiday resort’ next to an East German village and North Korea’s self-presentation through the lens of a tourist. Her approach problematizes not only the very constitution of reality itself and its complicated mediations, but also the position of the observer, who is always already a part of the mise-en-scène.

Born in 1974, Marie Voignier lives in Paris. Her video work has been shown in various exhibition spaces [such as the Nouveau Musée National (Monaco); Une histoire des années 80 à nos jours, Centre Pompidou (Paris) / Haus der Kunst (Munich); North Korean Perspectives, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago); and Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard 2016 (Paris)], festivals (Berlinale, FID Marseille, DocLisboa) and biennials [57th Venice Biennale (2017), Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012), the Rennes (2012) and Berlin Biennials (2010)]. She teaches video art and cinema at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Lyon.