ILA BÊKA & LOUISE LEMOINE

Artists filmmakers working at the crossroads of visual arts, non fiction cinema and architecture. For the past twenty years Bêka & Lemoine have been experimenting with new narrative and cinematic forms to explore how people experience, perceive, and relate to space from an emotional, social, and cultural standpoint.


Together they have made over forty films, among which ‘Koolhaas HouseLife’ (2008), ‘Barbicania’ (2014), ‘The Infinite Happiness’ (2015), ‘Moriyama San’ (2017), ‘Tokyo Ride’ (2020) and the city-matographic odyssey in 14 films ‘Homo Urbanus’ (2017-ongoing). In 2023, they published the book The Emotional Power of Space(B&P ed.)

Presented by The New-York Times as the “cult figures in the European architecture world”, Bêka & Lemoine’s work has been widely acclaimed as “a new form of criticism” (Mark) which “has deeply changed the way of looking at architecture” (Domus). Selected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (the Met) as one of the “Most exciting and critical design project of the year 2016”, Bêka & Lemoine were elected “Game Changers 2015” by Metropolis Magazine, and selected as one of the “100 most talented personalities of 2017” by Icon Design.

Their films have been widely presented in both solo and collective exhibitions at leading art and architecture museums, including Fondation Beyeler (Basel), Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris), Fondation Prada (Milan), MAXXI (Rome), La Biennale di Venezia (Venice), and the Barbican Art Gallery (London), among others.

In 2016, the MoMA - Museum of Modern Art in NY acquired Bêka & Lemoine’s entire body of work produced until that date for its permanent collection. Their films are also part of other public and private art collections, including MAXXI (Rome), CNAP Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), Fondazione Prada (Milan), MAC/CCB Fundaçao Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), among others.

Bêka & Lemoine are regularly invited to lecture in some leading universities: GSD / Harvard University (USA), GSAPP / Columbia University (New-York, USA), AAP / Cornell University (USA), Bartlett School of Architecture / UCL (London, UK). The have been invited as guest professors at GSAPP / Columbia University (New York) for the New York / Paris Program, at HEAD in Geneva (Switzerland), and from 2019 to 2021, they have been teaching the design Studio Diploma 16 (M.Arch.) at AA Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. They are currently teaching the course “Filming architecture” at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (Switzerland).

Their films are regularly shown in international film festivals, including CPH:DOX, Ji.hlava IDFF, Dok Leipzig, BAFICI, DocAviv, FIFA, Torino Film Festival, AFFR, among many others, where they have received many awards and distinctions.

In 2018 they have been laureate of Villa Kujoyama, French residency program for artists in Japan, and Ila Bêka has been laureate Italian Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.

FILMOGRAPHY

FILMOGRAPHY

  • Non Fiction
  • Big Ears Listen With Feet, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (93 min)
  • Oslavia, The Cave od the Past Future, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (17 min)
  • Tokyo Ride, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (90 min)
  • Homo Urbanus, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (10 x 55 min)
  • Butohouse, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (34 min)
  • Moriyama-San, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (63 min)
  • Selling Dreams, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (25+12 min)
  • Spiriti, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (15x3 min)
  • Voyage autour de la Lune, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (75 min)
  • The Infinite Happiness, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (85 min)
  • Barbicania, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (90 min)
  • 24 Heures sur Place, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (90 min)
  • L'expérience du vide, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (45 min)
  • La Maddalena Chair, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (25 min)
  • La Maddalena, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (12 min)
  • 25bis, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (46 min)
  • Living Architectures Zip, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (60 min)
  • Gehry's Vertigo, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (48 min)
  • Xmas Meier, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (51 min)
  • Inside Piano / The little Beaubourg, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (26 min)
  • Inside Piano / The Submarine, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (39 min)
  • Inside Piano / The power of silence, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (34 min)
  • Pomerol, Herzog & de Meuron, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (51 min)
  • Koolhaas Houselife, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (58 min)
  • Documentaries
  • Alfred, une nuit vénitienne, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (70 min)
  • A Balare/Frassinetti, by Ila Bêka (62 min)
  • A Balare/Pilastro, by Ila Bêka (61 min)
  • A Balare/Italicus, by Ila Bêka (60 min)
  • La danza dell'amore, by Ila Bêka (23 min)
  • Mattarello d'oro, by Ila Bêka (20 min)
  • Il dubbio dell'amore, by Ila Bêka (15 min)
  • Passero sublime, by Ila Bêka (7 min)
  • Mariano, by Ila Bêka (6.26 min)
  • L'uomo dei numeri, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Il testamento della memoria, by Ila Bêka (series of 20 films, 42min),
  • Videos
  • Monsieur Pelletret, by Ila Bêka (7 min)
  • Madame Pelletret, by Ila Bêka (4 min)
  • Salome & the seven heads, by Ila Bêka (6 min)
  • Mind Scraping, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Pigeons, by Ila Bêka (7.33 min)
  • Reminiscenza Onirica, by Ila Bêka (5min)
  • The end of the dream, by Ila Bêka (5.58 min)
  • Too much noises, by Ila Bêka (4 min)
  • Birding, by Ila Bêka (2 min)
  • The Prophet, by Ila Bêka (4.08 min)
  • Radio Maria, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Guadalupe, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (1.30 min)
  • Ascension, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (2.36 min)
  • The leaf blower, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (2.10 min)
  • Gynécée,  by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (1.39 min)
  • The spiral mouth, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (1.43 min)
  • Carmine, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (1.36 min)
  • Curtain, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (4.32 min)
  • Sound of Space, by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine (different pieces)
  • Quodlibet/The apartment, by Ila Bêka (12.25 min)
  • Feature Films - Fiction
  • Quodlibet, by Ila Bêka (84 min). Official Selection at the International Film Festival of Locarno.
  • Short Films - Fiction
  • I have seen my mother dancing in the clouds, by Ila Bêka (6 min). Grand Prix: Torino Film Festival. Séléction Officielle della Mostra del Cinema di Venezia. Séléction aux Oscars, par l'Academy Awards de Los Angeles
  • Buongiorno, by Melo Prino (aka Ila bêka) (5 min). Grand Prix: Festival Interfilm de Berlin, Festival de Annecy, Festival de Capalbio, Premio Troisi de Naples, Maremetraggio de Trieste. Prix Féderation Cinémas d'Essai, Mention au Nastri d'Argento.
  • Buonasera, by Melo Prino (aka Ila bêka) (5 min).
  • Buonanotte, by Melo Prino (aka Ila bêka) (5 min).
  • In Utero, by Ila Bêka (11 min). Jameson Short Film Awards du Meilleur court-métrage italien. Sélection Officielle à la Semaine de la Critique de Cannes. Prix Arcadi, Séléction Officielle du Festival du court-métrage de Clermont Ferrand.
  • Adriano e Caterina, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Appuntamento a Belleville, by Melo Prino (aka Ila bêka) (5 min)
  • Ventre, by Melo Prino (aka Ila bêka) (6 min). Prix du Festival del Cinema d'Arte di Bergamo.
  • Contagio, by Melo Prino(aka Ila bêka) (6 min)
  • Little Bird, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Requiem, by Ila Bêka (7 min)
  • Crash, by Ila Bêka (4 min)
  • The last taxi, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • The ambush, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Della paura di morire, by Ila Bêka (1.40 min)
  • The picture, by Ila Bêka (5 min)
  • Millimetraggi
  • Millimetraggi, a series of 168 very short-films (less than 3 min). Gran Prix: Festival du Film Très Court de Paris, Festival Maremetraggio-Oscar du court-metrage italien de Trieste (Italie), Festival Premio Massimo Troisi de Naples (Italie). Prix Arcadi Paris.
  • Fragments
  • Fragments, a collection of more than 500 vidéo-haîkus
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