Alain Escalle Homepage

Born in 1967 in the south from France, He studied in Graphic design and then embarked on a degree in cinema studies and cinematic tecniques. He discovered, in 1991, the world of video creation as a visual effets assistant for the Peter GREENAWAY' s video dance M FOR MAN, MUSIC & MOZART.

1992 was a turning point for Escalle who started as a digital film director with his first piece, a video installation, LE RADEAU DE LA MÉDUSE exhibited in Paris to the Palais Tokyo in 1993 (an ART 3000 event) and more recently at the Museum of Art Roger Quillot of Clermont-Ferrand. Then, he direct his first short-film in 1994, FROM THE SHIPWRECK about the tragedy of the raft of the MÉDUSE (1st Prize SCAM, 3rd Prize Art category with IMAGINED).

Ever since... Escalle has carried research, into Visual Arts from differents countries and periods. This technological and aesthetics research, between traditional form of cinema and Art history, leads Alain Escalle to collaborate, for more than ten years to projects such as the commercial series NTT GROUP for Japanese Télécoms, but also UNLIMITED MIRAGE co-directed with Maurice Benayoun (1st Prize Imagined 1992 Motion Graphics category). He also collaborated as an artistic director and visual effects specialist to a string of short films including CITIES OF THE PAST: BRUGES (1st price Imagined 1995, Art category) and A VIAGEM realised in high resolution for the Portuguese pavilion exhibited at the 1998 World Exhibition in Lisbon (Direction: Christian Boustani, 3rd prize Imagined 1999, Art category).

After many visits to Japan between 1993 and 2004, Escalle decided to dwell on Japanese culture and created THE TALE OF THE FLOATING WORLD. This short film, which was made of the stuff of dreams, won a raft of awards in some major world-class festivals ("GRAND PRIX" IMAGINA 2002 & preselection round at the 2003 CÉSARS (the French equivalent to the Academy awards). This film and his following video installation (DRIPPING, GROUND ZERO) approach Japanese history from a multiple viewpoint perspective to render the chaos of the Hiroshima bombing.

In 2001, Alain Escalle conceived and directed a digital installation THE SOUL AND THE STONE, a perennial fresco shown as a part of a multi-media course. The work is projected directly on the Grand Refectoire's stone wall of l’Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud. 1 / 2