Provost, Nicolas

1969 Ronse (Belgium). Lives and works in Antwerp.

Nicolas Provost (1969) is a filmmaker and visual artist who has moved back to Brussels after a ten-year stay in Norway. His work is a reflection on the grammar of cinema and the relation between visual art and the cinematic experience, analysing and questioning the phenomenon of cinema, its various elements, its influence and conventional rules. His work intends to walk on the fine line between dualities and balance between the grotesque and the moving, beauty and cruelty, the emotional and the intellectual. Time and again his phantasmagorias provoke both recognition and alienation and succeed in catching our expectations into an unravelling game of mystery and abstraction. With manipulations of time, codes and form, cinematographic and narrative language is analysed, accents are shifted and new stories are told. In his found footage work, filmic memory and perception are stimulated by the use of film historical fragments. Apart from the use of film and visual language, sound is also a constant factor in Provost’s body of work, as a rhythmical spine or an emotional guideline.


Solo exhibitions: 2010: ’Storyteller’, Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen (BE) – ’Films’, Haunch of Venison, Berlin (DE) – ’Nicolas Provost: Selected Works’, Seattle Art Museum (US) 2008: ’Nicolas Provost. Overzichtstentoonstelling’, Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL) – ’Plot Point’, MAMCS, Strasbourg (FR) 2007: ’Plot Point’, Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen (BE) 2005: Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen (BE) 2004: ’Focus Nicolas Provost’, Cinema Nova, Brussels (BE)

Group exhibitions: 2009: ’Into the Light’, Antwerpen Zuid (BE) – ’Man with the camera’, Warande, Turnhout (BE) 2007: PLATFORMA VIDEO – Athens (GR) – ’HyperMonochrome: Strategies of Ink Aesthetics in Contemporary Art’, Slade Research Centre, London (UK) - ASIA - EUROPE Mediations, Warsau, Lodz (PL) - Yokohama Museum, Fukuoka City Public Library and Aichi Arts Center in association with Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Niigata (JP) 2006: COURTisane festival for short film, video and new media, Ghent (BE) 2004: Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (NL) - Impakt Festival for the Audiovisual Arts, Utrecht (NL) - Artissima, Art Fair Torino (IT) - Cinema de Balie, Amsterdam (NL) - Filmhouse Limelight, Kortrijk (BE) - Solar de S. Roque, Vila Do Conde (PT) - ’Contemporary Flemish Works’, The White Chapel Gallery, London (UK) - Cinematiek, Utrecht (NL) - Les Mondes Parallèles Delta - Festival des Emergences, Lille (FR) - Tanzquartier, Vienna (AT) - ’50%beeld’, Monte Video, Amsterdam (NL) - San Francisco Independent Film Festival, San Francisco (US) - Festival Nemo, Paris (FR) - Viennale, Vienna (A) 2003: ’The Yearly National Norwegian Autumn Exhibition’, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (NO) - Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, Brooklyn (US) - Argos Festival, Brussels (BE) - Vooruit, Ghent (BE) - Microwave International Media Art Festival, Hong Kong (HK) - Backup Festival New Media in Film, Weimar (DE) - Pipshow, Oslo (NO) - Zeitgeist Multidisciplinary Arts Center, New Orleans (US) - Invideo, Milan (IT) - Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, Paris (FR) - ’Videomundi’, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (US) - French Institute, Vienna (A) - Polly Magoo, Marseille (FR) - The Podewil, Berlin (DE) - The Arsenal, Berlin (DE) - The Brotfabrik, Berlin (DE) 2002: The Dabora Gallery, New York (US) - ’Where!’, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL) - ’Window Shopping’, Oslo (NO) - Pipshow, Oslo (NO) - Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (US) - Kaapstad, Brugge (BE) - Feel Estate, Ghent (BE) 2001: International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL) - Victoria Theater, Ghent (BE) - Pipshow, Oslo (NO) - Helsinki Act 2001(FI) - The Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago (US) 2000: Argos, Brussels (BE) -Viper International Festival for Film, Video and New Media, Basel (CH) - The Nantucket Film Festival, New York (US)

Awards: For ’Induction’ (2006): Third Prize, COURTisane festival for short film, video and new media, Ghent (BE) For ’Exoticore’ (2004) : Audience Award, International Bunker Film Festival, Ventimiglia (IT) - Audience Award, Silhouette Film Festival, Paris (FR) - Honourable Mention, The Norwegian Shortfilm Festival, Grimstad (NO) - Jameson European Award and Urban Culture Award, Brussels International Short Film Festival, Brussels (BE) - Grand Prize, De Korste Nachten Shortfilm Festival, Antwerp (BE) - Grand Prize, Asian International Shortfilm Festival, Seoul (ROK) - Best European Film Award, Festival du Film de Vendôme (FR) - Special Jury Award, Uppsala Short Film Festival (SE) - Special Mention, Vila Do Conde International Short Film Festival (PT) For ’Oh Dear...’ (2004) : Grand Prize (Experimental), Vila Do Conde International Short Film Festival (PT) - Grand Prize, ZOOM’In Short Film Festival, Oslo (NO) For ’Bataille’ (2003) : Honourable Mention, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand (FR) - Founding Director Award, Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, Austin (US) For ’Papillon d’amour’ (2004) : Honourable Mention, 2004 Sundance Film Festival (US) - Best Film Award, V-Art Festival 2005, Sardinia (IT) - Grand Prize for the Best Experimental Film, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Ohio (US) - Golden Gate Award for the Best New Visions Work, 47th San Francisco International Film Festival, San Francisco (US) - Best Experimental Film Award, Nashville Film Festival, Nasville (US) - Gus Van Sant Best Experimental Film Award, 42nd Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan (US) - Stimulate My Brain Award; Minnesota Bearded Child Film Festival, Grand Rapids (US) - Founding Director Award, Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, Austin (US) - Honourable Mention, Lausanne Underground & Music Festival, Lausanne (CH) - Honourable Mention, The Norwegian Short Film Festival, Grimstad (NO) For Plot Point (2008): Golden Lamp Tree Award,International Film Festival of India (IN). EMAF-Award, Osnabrück (DE).Special Jury Prize, International Shortfilm Festival Clermont-Ferrand (FR). Best European Film Award, Festival Du Film De Vendôme (FR) (2007) Prix UIP Vila Do Conde (PT). For Gravity (2008):22. Stuttgarter Filmwinter (DE). (2007) Onda Curta Portugese Television Prize Vila Do Conde Shortfilm Festival (PT).