During her EMAP residency at Antre Peaux (2024), Fleur completed her ambitious Déjeuner nu video series which began in 2019.

Déjeuner nu is a soap opera involving multiple perspectives and no consensus. Hidden within the clichés of the daily soap are disguised a series of moral discussions about power. Episode by episode, six philosophical dialogues build upon one another, mapping the protagonists’ shifting relationships to gender, class and sexuality in an often satirical way.

In the plot, six friends reunite at a dinner party one night in Marseille, as the evening matures and alcohol and desire storm the room, power struggles turn each character’s account into an elaborate puzzle, in which fiction and reality blur. The series highlights everyday patriarchal and class warfare, using Kitchen sink realism as its starting point.

As the series develops it becomes unclear which stories are real and which exist solely in the character’s imaginations. All three couples live in this one block. Their social hierarchy and position within the group are ranked in ascending order from the ground up. The block is a parody of La Cité Radieuse, built as Corbusier’s vision for all, resided in by an elite.

Déjeuner nu explores the shifting power dynamics of group behaviour. Narrative is repeatedly broken down at the level of the sentence.

Desire and rejection lurk around the plot, creating a smokescreen. As the episodes progress the series plays on the idea of language itself, eventually generating it’s own logic.

The series stars actors: Marion Bottollier, Marina Cappe, Marie-Caroline Le Garrec, Xavier Delattre, Fabien Aissa Busetta, Matthieu Rocher and Cyril Brunet.


Episode details:

S01E03 - Trauma, 18”20’
Kris has given up her job in the law firm under some suspect circumstances that make us think twice about Dick’s charming charisma. Dick however can’t seem to distinguish the women apart from one another, and we begin to have a window into Kathy and David’s relationship, and how David plans to make a living now he has been fired from his lecturing position at the university. Someone has pissed on Nick’s rug during the course of the night and he is determined to find the culprit.
The narrator and architect of the series reveals herself in a series of intimate portraits.

S01E04 - Language, 26”55’
We learn Cathy’s alcoholism started when she was young, as a replacement for the cult she was brought up in. Her preoccupation with knives climaxes in a suggestive dance she performs especially for the viewers, the question is, who stabbed her?
As Kathy’s texts are blown about the table in a breeze, Kris suspects her least distinguished guest has been narrating the events of the night, secretly judging every move she makes. Kathy’s texts begin to reveal the motivation behind the series, as language itself is questioned by the notion of the ‘cut-up’. Kris learns Kathy is working class and hiding her disgust, ironically tries to draw comparisons between their lives. Kathy’s cunning plan to take town Kris is revealed at the end of the episode.

S01E05 - The Sickness, 27”05’
In this episode we start to pull together the discussions of sickness that have been touched on throughout the series, beginning with one of David’s sermons about his new book ‘The Solar Anus’. As Cathy is drunk and telling the table a tale, Kris’ preoccupation with the idea of madness is put to the test when havoc breaks out in the dining room. The question is, is she immune to the sickness that has contaminated the group?

After the screening of the episodes, there will be a conversation between the artist and Diane Pigeau (Directrice Artistique d'Antre Peaux) to which the audience is invited to actively join.

Fleur Melbourn is a London-based visual artist and writer working primarily with video. She is currently based in Athens. Her work deals with hidden structures of violence by parodying, fictionalising or bringing to the surface systems of control that take shape in classicism, patriarchy and capitalism.

Since 2015, Fleur has focused on character-driven videos in which dialogue and language take centre stage in order to explore the complexities of structural power. In confined spaces, characters sit glued to the spot where they explore the shifting power dynamics of group behaviour.

Fleur has exhibited, screened and been artist-in-residence with institutions and galleries in Europe and beyond, including; Nottingham Contemporary (UK), The Sculpture Center (NYC), Antre Peaux (FR), Triangle France (FR), Centre d'Art Neuchâtel (CH), Jerwood Visual Arts (UK), The Austrian Cultural Forum (UK), The Serpentine Gallery (UK), Camden Arts Center (UK), Composite (BE), Moly Sabata (FR), SPACE (UK), In Extenso (FR), ANDOR (UK) and Le Bourgeois (UK). She has taken part in conferences and screenings at Belsunce Projects & Octo Productions (FR), Carlos Ishikawa (UK), SPACE (UK), Triangle France (FR) and Terzo Fronte (IT). She has received funding from Fluxus Art Projects and Arts Council England.

With

Marion Bottollier, Marina Cappe, Marie-Caroline Le Garrec, Xavier Delattre, Fabien Aissa Busetta, Matthieu Rocher and Cyril Brunet.

Directed by Fleur Melbourn

DoP : Fleur Melbourn

Written : Fleur Melbourn

Produced by Fleur Melbourn, Triangle France+Asterides, Belsunce Projects, Fluxus Art Projects, Antre Peaux and EMAP

Lead Producer: Fleur Melbourn , Cecilia Valensise 

Production assistant Cassandra Delpy

Editing: Fleur Melbourn

Music: Kate Sproule

Traduction by: Célia Hay Fabienne Guilbert Burgoa, Philippe Daerendinger, Frederic Blancart et Marina Cappe 

Extras: Dan Smeeth, Cassandra Delpy

Extras, VO: : Simon Bailleau

Special Thanks to: Diane Pigeau, Fiona Guerra, Marie De Gaulejac, Won Jin Choi, Sebastien Pont, and Helene Bellenger

Location provided by : Sebastien Pont

Official partners : Triangle France+Asterides, Belsunce Projects, Fluxus Art Projects, Antre Peaux and EMAP