Le Panthéon

Paris 2003, 10 Min

With: Isabella Venturini, Wladimir Agranat, Peter Gather, Lani Newin, Gerhard Treml, Voice: Michael Michlmayr, translation: Birgit und Steve Bal, Music: Yuji Yasunaga

Trailer: 01:18 (6,1 MB)

As a national monument that has served since 1885 as the memorial for great men during the French Republic, the Panthéon blends the history of architecture, the state and gender in a very telling way. Telling because the mausoleum, which was originally built for a woman, simply denies even today the presence and participation of revolutionary women. Telling also because the official history of France is up to this date firmly rooted in this basilica, which das again and again been newly adapted for the respective national cause. A history that still, and not only, is based on the inclusion of dissident personalities such as Victor Hugo, Emilie Zola or Jean Paul Marrat. With a small, inofficial interference of the artist, who attributes these male stories to women, this turning Victor Hugo into Victoria, Marrat into Jeanne Pauline or Zola into Emilie, a subtle reorientation takes place, which is subverting from the insidethe national purpose of this historical building. Because "memory" which, through these national heroes, is supposed to be directed to the French Republic, is being channeled toward a different direction. The viewers of the video are led through the memorial site together with a group of visitors in an admittedly ather conventional manner. However, the transformation into women of famous men, in whom the self-confidence of the Republic is rooted, highlights not only the embarrassing absence of great women, but also breaks with the official writing of history, since the national values that these men represent and that were appropriated by the male State, can be seen from a femininist perspective.

Christa Benzer, translation: Birgit Ball