That January 5 death from unspecified causes Michael Snow. Multidisciplinary artist (he was a sculptor, painter, professional jazz musician and filmmaker) of Canadian origin who managed to become an essential name in the cinematic avant-garde in the 1960s, becoming a member of the Royal Academy of Canada while his works were exhibited and screened around the world. His last work for the cinema was Urban landscapedeveloped in 2019: a belated response to the experimental documentary that marked his career in the early 1970s, the central region.

Born in Toronto, Snow studied at Upper Canada College and the Ontario College of Art, realizing in 1957 that his work was on public display. In the 1960s, he moved in with his partner, the artist Joyce Wielandin New York, where he made contact with a whole scene of directors with experimental concerns, among whom we find Holly Frampton (with whom you have occasionally collaborated) or Stan Brakhageand that such a mark would leave in the work of Chantal Akerman (whose director is according to Sight and sound The best movie, Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels). In 1967 the aforementioned Frampton participated, in fact, in another of his main works, wave length.

Wave length it focused on exploring a room, illustrating Snow’s interest in camera movement, the language it could engender, and the relationship between image and sound. Later in 1976, he had a kind of sequel, Breakfast, after Snow had already recorded several jazz albums and managed to exhibit his works of painting and sculpture. Also, in 1971, he caused a sensation in avant-garde circles with the aforementioned central region: a three-hour film that had been recorded by a robotic camera from the top of a mountain. His images recorded the Canadian desert and, according to Snow, they were meant to refer to material that an alien craft would capture.

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