Michel Nedjar
Michel Nedjar
Master of Art Brut, Michel Nedjar was born in 1947 in the Val d'Oise to a Jewish family marked by war and the holocaust. His father, born in Algiers, settled in Paris in 1921 as a tailor. At home, he tinkered on a sewing machine doll clothes for his sisters. During the Second World War, a large part of his family fell victim to Nazi oppression. In 1960, he became aware of the magnitude of the Holocaust. At the age of fourteen, he enrolled in a vocational school to become a tailor and sells jeans with his flea grandfather from Saint-Ouen and accompanies his grandmother to the scrap fair; she makes him share his love for Shmattès (the worn cloth) that she picks up and stacks. In the spring of 1967, he left for military service. With tuberculosis and declared disabled in 1968, he spent a few months in a school of fashion stylist. He is upset by the vision of 'Night and Fog' by Alain Resnais, echoing his own disappearances in his family. In the years 1970-1975, he left with Teo Hernandez. His travels take him to Morocco, Asia Minor, Europe and Mexico. He discovers cultures rich in symbolic expressions. He begins to take an interest in the funeral art and the dolls whose magic function fascinates him. Returning to Paris in 1976, he began making his first dolls called "Chairdâmes" with rags that he gleaned in the neighborhood of the Goutte d'Or, then made dolls dyed. In 1978, a period of depression transformed his style: his dolls look like gargoyles and terrifying totems, they are sometimes soiled with dirt and even blood. It was in 1980 that he began to draw with grease pencils on recovered flea media. He made his first films in 8 mm from 1964 during his holidays in Greece or the Balearic Islands. Like Lionel Soukaz, he is one of the first French experimental filmmakers to address the theme of homosexuality (Le gant de l'autre, 1977). His practice will evolve towards a more formal exploration of the characteristics of cinema: luminous calligraphies (Gestuel, 1978), grain of the film (Le grain de la peau, 1986); either to direct cinema (Monsieur Loulou, 1980). These research finds their paroxysm in Capitale-paysage (1982-83), mixing snatches of conversations, work of concrete sound and rhythm, and kaleidoscopic effects.
Known For Directing
Most Rating 2.589
Birthday 1947-10-12
Place of Birth Soisy-sous-Montmorency, Val d'Oise, France
Also Known As
Cinématon
1978

Cinématon

Cristo
1977

Cristo

Michel Nedjar
1978

Michel Nedjar

Dolls of Darkness: The Art of Michel Nedjar
2016

Dolls of Darkness: The Art of Michel Nedjar

Michel Over There
1970

Michel Over There

Lacrima Christi
1980

Lacrima Christi

Cristaux
1978

Cristaux

Graal
1980

Graal

4 à 4 Métro-Barbès-Rochechou-Art
1983

4 à 4 Métro-Barbès-Rochechou-Art

Esmeralda
1977

Esmeralda

Pause
1970

Pause

Salomé
1976

Salomé

Souvenirs/Rouen
1983

Souvenirs/Rouen

Fragments
1987

Fragments

Hors-jeu
1979

Hors-jeu

Mesures de miel et de lait sauvage
1984

Mesures de miel et de lait sauvage

Bouquet of Eyes
1983

Bouquet of Eyes

Sara
1981

Sara

Sur Graal de T.H.
1981

Sur Graal de T.H.

Le chant de l'âme
1989

Le chant de l'âme

Chutes de Pascal
1981

Chutes de Pascal

Chutes de Michel Nedjar
1984

Chutes de Michel Nedjar

J'aime
1978

J'aime

Cinématon III
1978

Cinématon III

Cinématon n°27 : Michel Nedjar
1978

Cinématon n°27 : Michel Nedjar

Robillard André, Nedjar Michel
1986

Robillard André, Nedjar Michel

Madrid, Quelques Images
1991

Madrid, Quelques Images