Tohé Commaret – because of (U), 2024

Tohé Commaret’s videos are usually unscripted to encourage collaboration and improvisation. She films what the performers wish to reveal about themselves so that the form reflects the subject as closely as possible. Seeing cinema as a means of redressing injustice, the artist is keen to provide a space for people who are usually denied visibility or a voice, by giving them the opportunity to produce their own images. She explores the stories we tell ourselves to mask the pain of reality or the identities imposed on us, and the lengths we go to break free from their constraints.

Entitled because of (U), in reference to the keyboard shortcut for the “broken heart” emoticon, Tohé Commaret’s video work traces the wanderings of a young woman, Laura, who, as she drifts around in the town of Vitry-sur-Seine, is constantly making phone calls and ringing people’s doorbells. Through the loneliness of this person in the grip of her obsessive beliefs and repressed memories, because of (U) reveals a form of social anxiety, defined by opposing feelings: the constant fear of missing out on something and the difficulty of relating to people. Standing at the interface of documentary and the imaginary, because of (U) conveys the complexity of human emotions and questions the archetypes of romantic relationships, through an interplay of the minuscule and the colossal, the familiar and the malformed, the quotidian and the hallucinatory.