Text & caption

Keep the Brown, 2003.
Réalisé par / Directed by Xavier Veilhan ; co-produit par / co-produced by Arthurpym & Anna Sanders Films. 

DVD Film muet  en couleur / Color silent movie, 7'40". Edition 3 + 1 AP. 

Courtesy Andréhn–Schiptjenko, Stockholm & Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris.

Production views : Ron Egozi


As with Veilhan’s photographic and sculptural work, the sets and props in the film are of a rudimentary  nature.  Details are stripped away.  But even in this bare bones state, the location and characters are instantly familiar.  The film’s setting is a minimal interior easily recognizable as a New York commercial  loft  building.  The simply costumed characters, played  by Veilhan’s close New York friends (symbols to Veilhan of the city itself) are international couriers.  
Veilhan uses the couriers, those ubiquitous urban figures, to represent a form of constant motion – the continuous cycle of pick-ups and deliveries. This completely constructed motion is juxtaposed in the film with dream sequences involving the natural, cyclical motion of the planets.  
In the film, the Keep The Brown couriers deliver spherical packages that echo the planets in form as well as motion. The items delivered are revealed to be parts of a whole.  When assembled, the parts create a large brown bear. By assembling him, the couriers bring the bear back to life, and the bear then becomes a character in their narrative.  Veilhan’s work often juxtaposes elements of the natural world with those from the artificial world created by humans.
Extract from the Press release, Keep the Brown, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, 25.10 – 29.11.03.