Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman was born in Brussels in 1950.
At the age of fifteen, she discovered Pierrot le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard, which revealed the world of cinema to her. She entered the Brussels film school INSAS in 1967, which she left after several months, nevertheless directing her first matrixial short film the following year, Saute ma ville. In the early seventies, Akerman lived in New York, where she discovered the underground American scene that would deeply influence her work. There, she made experimental short films, before returning to Brussels, where she produced her first feature Je tu il elle (1974) followed by Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). As of its
screening at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, it was considered one of the major works of filmic modernity and in 2022 was named the best film of all time by the British magazine Sight & Sound.
A tireless artist, Akerman exploded narrative boundaries throughout her journey making over forty films, delving by turns into fiction, documentary, the musical, literary adaptation and commissions for television. Travelling across the globe, she constantly explored essential concerns in her work, including history, identity, exile, belonging, memory,
intimacy and gender.
From 1995 onwards, Chantal Akerman made over a dozen installations, mainly using her films as starting points, which have been presented at the most prestigious art museums and events, including the Walker Art Center in minneapolis, Documenta in Kassel, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Eye Film Museum, ICA in London, and the Venice Biennale. Her installations and archives formed the locus of the recent exhibition Chantal Akerman Travelling, presented in 2024 by the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, hosted in autumn 2024 by Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Mac/CCB in Lisbon
in spring 2025.
Her work has close ties to writing and she is also the author of several books illuminating her work, which have been translated into numerous languages worldwide. Chantal Akerman died in Paris on 5 October 2015. In 2017, her sister created the Fondation Chantal Akerman, in association with the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, in order to preserve and render her archives, texts and films accessible. The latter, constantly solicited by cinephiles, film institutes or festivals, remain an invaluable influence for countless filmmakers and artists.
