Marnie Weber, Forever Free, The Cinema Show

For the very first time, Le Magasin – CNAC will present a collection of films, scenes and music from “The Spirit Girls”, a rock-music group devised by American artist Marnie Weber. This group follows her experiences throughout the 90!s, where she played and recorded with The Party Boys, The Perfect Me and produced two solo albums: Woman with Bass in 1994 and Cry for Happy in 1996. She also illustrated the cover of rock music group Sonic Youth’s 1998 album, A Thousand Leaves.

Furthermore, Marnie Weber will be presenting a new work, especially created for this exhibition.

The Spirit Girls is a conceptual art rock music group made up of five female characters who died tragically in the 70!s, but come back on earth to deliver their emancipation message. In the first serial, Songs that never Die (2005), The Spirit Girls play different roles culminating at the end in a sort of musical performance for an audience of animals.

In the following serial, entitled Sing Me A Western Song (2007), The Spirit Girls find themselves in a phantasmagorical landscape of the American West alongside an odd circus and strange animals. In both The Truth Speakers (2009) and The Sea of Silence (2009), The Spirit Girls search for a group of ventriloquist dolls known as the Truth Speakers through which they wish to deliver their message to the masses. The final part, The Campfire Song (2009), is a recreation of an ordinary campfire scene, where the girls are joined by a bizarre gathering of woodland animals, devised by Marnie Weber. The scene is combined with a song performed by The Spirit Girls, with ghosts as the lyrical subject.

The Spirit Girls refers to the mid-20th century American spiritualist movement, which gave way to women!s rights, despite the dominant patriarchal culture of the time. The scenes of their dream-like quests are often Marnie Weber!s interpretations of mythic American landscapes as seen through surrealistic lenses. Such surrealistic images are a constant reoccurrence in Marnie Weber’s work; most notably in her collage art.