CinéSchool presents “Bernie Krause, A Life with The Great Animal Orchestra”
©Masha Karpoukhina for Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
By Nathalie Charles, Program manager, CinéSchool
On the occasion of the exhibition The Great Animal Orchestra at Exploratorium in San Francisco (Until October 15, 2023), CinéSchool is pleased to present the 2021 documentary film, Bernie Krause, A Life with The Great Animal Orchestra, directed by French filmmaker Vincent Tricon in partnership with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
For more than fifty years, American musician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause has been recording the sounds of nature and animals around the world. On the occasion of the exhibition The Great Animal Orchestra at Exploratorium in San Francisco with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Until October 15, 2023), students registered in the CinéSchool program will be able to watch a documentary about his work online for free from October 2-9, 2023, and will have access to educational resources created specifically for this project. Students will also be able to participate in an interactive discussion on Flip following the screening with the film’s director and the Fondation Cartier team.
Register for the screening now!
Bernie Krause, A Life with The Great Animal Orchestra
Directed by Vincent Tricon and produced by Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
2021, 37 min., in English with French subtitles; recommended for ages 11+
For more than fifty years, American musician and “soundscape ecologist” Bernie Krause has traveled the world recording the sounds of animals, terrestrial and marine species, in their natural habitats. Bernie sends us an urgent message about the climate emergency and the fragility of the wild world. The film delves into the world of a passionate man who was the first to hear the song of the world, and who contends that if we want to preserve it, we must learn to listen.
Themes: animal, biodiversity, bioacoustics, biophony, spectrograms, climate change, environment, music, nature, soundscape
Discover The Great Animal Orchestra
Over the course of nearly 50 years, Bernie Krause collected more than 5,000 hours of recordings of natural environments, including at least 15,000 terrestrial and marine species from around the world. These soundscapes invite us into an immersive audio-visual experience to listen to the world’s biodiversity and the collective biophony across the world.
This installation is a collaboration between Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists. It was commissioned in 2016 by Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and is now part of its permanent collection. The website The Great Animal Orchestra invites you to be the conductor of nature’s vast musical ensemble, explore landscape ecology, and become aware of the urgent need to preserve the splendors of the animal world.
How to participate
This screening is presented as part of CinéSchool, a free French film initiative for young audiences, presented by Villa Albertine, the French Embassy, and FACE Foundation. CinéSchool is a program reserved for French teachers in the US (French schools, French immersion and dual-language programs, Alliances Francaises, French as a Foreign Language and Heritage Language, and FLAM programs).
To register for Bernie Krause, A Life with The Great Animal Orchestra, fill in the form available here.
Any questions? Contact nathalie.charles@villa-albertine.org
In partnership with
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is a forum for discussion and artistic experimentation that places contemporary art in all its forms, its exhibition, and its accessibility to the public at the core of its institutional mission. Since its founding in 1984 by Alain Dominique Perrin, who was President of Cartier at that time, its activities have promoted collaboration and exchange across artistic disciplines. Built up over the course of its exhibitions, its Collection reflects the multidisciplinary and breadth of the themes it explores through its programming, in resonance with society and contemporary stakes.
The Fondation Cartier carries out its activities and commitments with the desire and ambition to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. Through its program of exhibitions and events, the Fondation Cartier creates pathways between creative spaces and fosters a genuine environment for multicultural exchange.
Its new Parisian premises, located at 2 Place du Palais-Royal in a Haussmannian building constructed in 1855, have been completely reconceived by architect Jean Nouvel. The dynamic architecture he envisioned, consisting of five mobile platforms, allows for fully adjustable spatial configurations and lighting variations, multiplying the possibilities for programming and exhibition-making. The architecture acts as a flexible system serving the institution’s commitments, open to the broad spectrum of visual arts, crafts, performance, and science.
Expanding its potential, the Fondation Cartier has turned this unique venue into a space for educational innovation and shared aesthetic experiences, where artists and audiences come together to open up new perspectives on contemporary art and culture.
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