Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude makes visual arts debut with video installation in Paris

Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude, one of Europe’s most acclaimed contemporary directors, has made his debut in the visual arts with the video installation Sleep #2, now on display at The Film Gallery in Paris. The show, running from September 22 to October 4, is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) through its Cantemir Program, which funds international cultural projects.

The exhibition coincides with a full retrospective of Radu Jude’s films organized by mk2 Bibliothèque and Centre Pompidou, set for September 23 to October 11.

According to ICR, Sleep #2 reimagines Jude’s 2024 desktop film built around a live EarthCam feed of Andy Warhol’s grave in Pittsburgh. Initially conceived as a conceptual joke on Warhol’s marathon film Sleep (1964), the work evolved into “a layered reflection on watching, duration, authorship, and mortality.”

Displayed on four screens reflecting the film’s seasonal structure, the installation incorporates light variations, repetitions, and accidents in the live stream. A webcam installed in the gallery also integrates visitors into the work’s observation mechanism, echoing its theme of surveillance.

The Paris exhibition is accompanied by a series of talks and screenings. On September 30, theorist Dork Zabunyan and critic Élodie Tamayo will debate cinema in gallery spaces and Jude’s archival projects, with an evening tribute at Cinema L’Archipel to Isidore Isou’s centenary, featuring a rare 35mm screening of Traité de bave et d’éternité (1951).

Further details are available here.

A second Radu Jude exhibition, The Exit of the Trains, created with historian Adrian Cioflâncă and in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, will open at The Film Gallery on October 9.

Born in Bucharest in 1977, Radu Jude is known for films such as Aferim! (2015, Silver Bear in Berlin), I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018, Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary), Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021, Golden Bear in Berlin), and Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World