Plutôt mourir que mourir

The artist Natacha Nisic explores the remnants of the First World War through the prism of two stories, two civilisations and two experiences deeply rooted in time and pain. The first story concerns the Native Americans of North America, in particular members of the Hopi tribe, many of whom enlisted and fought on the fronts of Picardy and the Somme in 1917 and 1918. The second is an archaeology of everyday pain described in the clinical journal of the German art historian Aby Warburg, a member of a great Jewish banking family, who had famously traded his right to take over the bank for all the books he might wish for. During the many months of this pitiless war, Warburg gathered hundreds, even thousands, of images and texts in an attempt to understand the ideological foundations of this brutal conflict. His work had repercussions on his mental health.
Natacha Nisic’s film is a symphony that pays tribute to humanity; it is a manifesto film in both content and form.
This film was commissioned by the Ministère de la Culture, under the aegis of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, as part of the commemorations of the Centenary of the First World War. It is listed in the inventory of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain.