PATRICK BOKANOWSKI

Patrick Bokanowski born in 1943, lives and works in Paris. From 1962 to 1966, he studied photography, optics, and chemistry, under the direction of Henri Dimier, a painter and scholar specializing in optical phenomena and perspective systems. Bokanowski’s first true window into the world of cinema was through the animated films of Jean Mutschler and for a long time, animation remained for him a kind of predilection as well as a privileged ground for experimentation. Patrick Bokanowski, wishing to make his images more expressive, and his forms more fluid, collects rounded, blown or hammered shards of glass through which to film. Not being completely satisfied with this result alone, he then, with the help of specialists, manufactures optics and experiments with reflective surfaces, mirrors (both stable and moving), and mercury baths. His use of the technique of reflective mirrors, through which he films a completely distorted reality, is best expressed in his film, At The Edge of the Lake. The realization of this film required almost fifteen mirrors, meticulously manufactured and selected among dozens of samples.

In thirty years, Patrick Bokanowski has completed seven films, all with purely musical soundtracks composed by his wife Michele. The musical compositions play a dominant role in all of his work. He also exhibits paintings, drawings and photographs.