Starting from this anecdote from the annals of art history – in which the collector is presumed to have been literally killed by a piece from his collection – the ramifications of Vollard’s death are spun into a narrative weave of a biographical nature through the testimony of three individuals: Jean-Paul Morel, journalist, philosopher and Vollard’s biographer; Catherine Geens, art historian and researcher; and Dominique Forest, a French sculptor.
The tale is filled out by a visit to the scenes where the event unfolded, from Rue Martignac in Paris to the small town of Tremblay-sur-Mauldre by way of Versailles and Fontainebleu. The resulting video leans heavily on the structures of the documentary genre to illustrate a dark episode where art, death, greed and remembrance intertwine in the fate of an art dealer and collector whose work contributed in no small measure to the art market system as we now know it, and whose priceless collection is today spuriously dispersed across numerous public institutions and private collections. Today, not even the grave where his remains lie bears Vollard’s name.

Video, 61’