Spotlight on Bêka & Lemoine

Bêka & Lemoine have stood out on the international architectural scene for the last 15 years through a cinematographic work known for its innovative nature and its tender and biting humour, which has disrupted the usual representation of contemporary architecture by putting people and uses at the forefront. A project which defeats the question of genre, by placing itself at the edges of the documentary and video art, through a singular and highly subjective style. Thanks to an authentic artistic perspective on architecture, Bêka & Lemoine open new horizons to the relationship between architecture and cinema.

Presented by The New-York Times as the “cult figures in the European architecture world”, Beka & 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”, elected “Game Changers 2015” by Metropolis Magazine, selected as one of the “100 most talented personalities of 2017” by Icon Design, the complete work of Bêka & Lemoine has been acquired in 2016 by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York for its permanent collection.

Koolhaas Houselife portrays one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture: the house in Bordeaux, designed by Rem Koolhaas / OMA in 1998.
The film lets the viewer enter into the daily intimacy of the house through the stories and daily chores of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper, and the other people who look after the building.
As we follow and interact with Guadalupe, an unusual and unpredictable look at the spaces and structure of the building opens up.

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fLVMyGBFSU
Watch Bêka & Lemoine films on the official site

Barbicania is a feature-length film capturing a month long immersion in the life of the Barbican Centre and Estate in London, one of the most representative achievements of brutalist architecture.
The film, built as a personal diary, recounts on a daily basis what the directors duo has discovered during their urban trip from the top floors of the towers to the underground levels of the art centre.
Barbicania invites you to discover the personalities, lifestyle and architectural landscapes that make the Barbican so special.
Drawing an intimate human map of the place, the film questions the durability of this post Second World War utopia.

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vpokrTbKHs
Watch Bêka & Lemoine films on the official site

Walking in unknown cities to collect impressions, to catch a vibration, to gather situations and things seen at the angle of a street, on a crossroad, from the top of a building.
Depicting a city in its present, in the simplicity of its daily life. Listening to its rumble, the sound of its depths. Slipping into its rhythm. To be on the lookout, in a continuous wonder towards the imagination and creativity men have managed to develop to find a way to live together. Asking ourselves what makes a city, trying to understand its silent rules, its habits, its imperfections, its difficulties, and its unique way to answer the endless question: Where do we go?
This project tries to collect a few elements of answer. These visual notes, made on the fly, look at the urban inhabitant within his group and in his deep solitude, redrawing the outline of each city following a sentimental geography. Presented in a comparative dynamic through the lens of a selection of themes and issues linked with the street daily life, these films enable us to perceive each of these different urban contexts as an experimental, local and unique laboratory answering the same global challenge of how can we live all together.

Trailer: vimeo.com/ondemand/homourbanus
Watch Bêka & Lemoine films on the official site

The Infinite Happiness is a highly unusual architectural experience. The film takes us to the heart of one of the contemporary residential developments considered to be a new model of success: the giant “8 House” designed in 2009 by Danish architects BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine recount their month-long immersion inside this experiment of vertical village, nominated “World best residential building” in 2011. As a Lego game, the film builds up a collection of life stories all interconnected by their personal relation to the building.
Drawing the lines of a human map, the film reveals the building through an inner and intimate point of view. By showing the surprising results of this innovative social model, the directors question the architecture’s ability to create collective happiness.

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAPEioSNvDc
Watch Bêka & Lemoine films on the official site

One week in the extraordinary-ordinary life of Mr. Moriyama, a Japanese art, architecture and music enlightened amateur who lives in one of the most famous contemporary Japanese architecture, the Moriyama house, built in Tokyo in 2005 by PritzkerPrize winner Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA).
Introduced in the intimacy of this experimental microcosm which redefines completely the common sense of domestic life, Ila Bêka recounts in a very spontaneous and personal way the unique personality of the owner: a urban hermit living in a small archipelago of peace and contemplation in the heart of Tokyo.
From noise music to experimental movies, the film let us enter into the ramification of the Mr. Moriyama’s free spirit.
Moriyama-San, the first film about noise music, acrobatic reading, silent movies, fireworks and Japanese architecture!

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egr2BAdXZA4
Watch Bêka & Lemoine films on the official site