Building a pictorial history of Chinese calligraphy: a videographic narrative

"La pierre et le pinceau" screening

Marie-Françoise Plissart, 2010-2011, 20 min.

The camera follows Lia Wei and Zhang Qiang as they explore cliff tombs from the Eastern Han dynasty (2nd ^century CE), and monumental medieval Buddhist inscriptions (6th ^century CE). In parallel with this research, Lia Wei and Zhang Qiang practice a form of four-handed writing on soon-to-be monumental silk scrolls, which they then install on buildings or in landscapes, for the camera.

Showing extracts from the film project "Arpenter un paysage inscrit"

Marie-Françoise Plissart, 2024-2025, 30 min.

The camera follows a group of Inalco researchers and students to four mountains inscribed by Zheng Daozhao, a local prefect and Taoist poet from the 6th ^{century AD, in China's Shandong province, as they document the inscriptions. This second film project gives voice to the researchers and student members of the Altergraphy research project led by Lia Wei, entitled "When writing becomes calligraphy: medieval inscribed landscapes and their modern reception" (2023-2027), who enrich it with a photographic archive, their logbooks, and their apprenticeships in sinology, engraving and calligraphy techniques, as well as editing, with the participation of Tchou-Tchou Rao Tophoven.}