Johan Grimonprez

Johan Grimonprez is a Belgian multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator. He is best known for his films Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), featured in the Guardian's article "From Warhol to Steve McQueen: A History of Video Art in 30 Works," Double Take (2009), and Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (2016), based on Andrew Feinstein's book.

Biography of Johan Grimonprez

Born in Roeselare, Belgium, in 1962, Grimonprez studied Photography and Mixed Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent before pursuing further studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he graduated in 1992. The following year, he attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.

Grimonprez's 2005 work, "Looking for Alfred," explores the theme of the double through simulations and reversals, centering around film director Alfred Hitchcock and his iconic appearances in his films. Countless Hitchcock doppelgangers act out a mysterious game of confusion in which Hitchcock meets Hitchcock. This puzzling game pays tribute to the Surrealist painter René Magritte's pictorial universe. This enigmatic piece received the International Media Award (ZKM, Germany) in 2005 and the European Media Award in 2006. His full-length feature, "Double Take" (2009), was honored with the Black Pearl Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Spirit Award. It was also an official selection at the Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals.

Johan Grimonprez gained international recognition with his film essay "Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y" at Documenta X in Kassel, Germany, in 1997, which eerily presaged the tragic events of September 11th in New York. In 2016, his latest feature-length film, "Shadow World," earned the Best Documentary Feature Film award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland and the 61st International Film Festival of Valladolid, Spain.

Grimonprez's work is part of various international collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France; the Kanazawa Art Museum in Japan; the National Gallery in Berlin, Germany; and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. He has curated projects at renowned museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany, and the Tate Modern in London, England.

Currently, Johan Grimonprez divides his time between Belgium and New York. He is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts in New York.