Son of Chilean surrealist painter Roberto Echaurren Matta, Gordon Matta-Clark has experimented with the possibility of attributing new spatial relationships to architectural forms. His works are among the most emblematic of Anarchitecture, a 1970s New York movement which included artistis from various disciplines. In the summer of 1977, shortly before his premature death at 35, he worked in Antwerp, on the Office Baroque project, a series of cuts in geometric forms which start at the roof and cross five floors of a building, in a continuous change of interior views. The film by Cherica Convents puts together material shot in 16 mm on that occasion. Previously unreleased, the footage was recently restored and digitalized. This rare and precious document is a portrait of the artist at work, and gathers his reflections and images of the project Jacob’s Ladder, which he produced for Kassel Documenta 6 in 1977. 

Cherica Convents
Born in Belgium 1950. She studied film at NARAFI (Brussels), Sint-Lucas (Brussels). Until the 80s she realized underground film projects. She collaborated with ICC Antwerp and the Artwork Foundation. Her main work includes films about artists as Gordon Matta-Clark, and realizations for Michael Druks, Benny Efrat and James Lee Bayers and Luc Tuymans. in 2012 she founded the Cherica Archives.

Selected Filmography
2013 A Jacob’s Ladder, Remembering Gordon Matta-Clark 1984 Life on Earth 1983 Glassworks Leibovitz 1980 Oreona 1978 Office Baroque