Tinguely

Loaded with vitality and joy, but also touching and melancholy, the film recounts the personality, art, and loves of Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely, 20 years after his death. An ingenious and poetic creator, as anarchistic in his work as in his private life, the “King of the Swiss”, as Niki de Saint Phalle ironically nicknamed him, became known within the context of post-WW2 artistic avant-gardes as a protagonist of the French Nouveau Réalisme movement. Tinguely reached international fame in the early 60s with works such as Homage to New York, which self-destructed in MoMA’s garden in a desecrating mechanical performance. Interweaving stories from friends and historic collaborators, from Daniel Spoerri to Seppi Imhof, with rare footage and archival photographs, Thümena traces in parallel the artist’s biography and career, from his beginnings to his long and explosive association with Niki de Saint Phalle, his companion in life and work, who appears at his side during the creation of many works, including “Etude pour une fin du monde n. 2”, executed in the Nevada desert in 1962, and “Le Cyclope”, begun in 1969 in the French forest of Milly and completed after the artist’s death.