Magical Realism and Antonio Negri's Theory of Art: In Light of Claire Denis' Film Vendredi Soir

Choi Sooim

doi:10.21049/ccs.2014.34..7

This article examines magical realism in contemporary european film, whichis considered to be one of the most popular styles in the present culture, withregards to Antonio Negri’s theory of art. Magical realism is “alternative approach to reality” (Maggie Ann Bowers,Magic(al) Realism) and defined as “a fictional technique that combines fantasywith raw physical reality or social reality in a search for truth beyond thatavailable from the surface of everyday life” (Joan Mellen, Magic Realism). Theterm of Magic Realism was coined in 1923 by Franz Roh, German art historian,as the concept for the post-expressionist painting in Germany. It has flourishedin the Latin-American literature during the 1950s to 1980s and spreadworldwide. Since 1980s magical realism is considered to be a universal artisticmode. Since 1990s magical realism is to find in the various novels, and since2000 one encounters magical realism in the cinema very often. Antonio Negri writes about the relationship between life, imagination, art andthe political in his book Art et Multitude. According to Negri, the hard life ofpeople in the present society liberates the imagination and this creates the artas “the excess of the existence”. In this process the aesthetic becomes to thepolitical. Negri calls this space of art as “magical time and space”. Claire Denis’ film Vendredi Soir is analyzed as a contemporary magic realisttext, which realizes Negri's concept of art: vendredi soir (friday night) inVendredi Soir is the magical time, when the impossible becomes the possible,and paris in the public transportation strike is the magical space, where theindividuals meet the other in a new situation. The film analysis associates itselfwith Negri’s theory of art: in Vendredi Soir, it is to see, that the excess of theexistence liberates imagination and creates the magic reality both in themovements of things and the human relationship. The phenomenon of magical realism in contemporary culture can be understoodas the symptom of the emotional and existential pains of contemporary peoplein the current world. The contemporaneity of the magical realism can be readin the film as "the metaphor for contemporary thought" (Alain Badiou, Cinema). As Antonio Negri writes, art can become “the aesthetic redemption” (Negri, Artet Multitude) for us. At the same time “(t)his is where aesthetics can be transformedinto the political.” (Lee, "Communism and the Void")

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