Metamorphose/2020

Metamorphose is a visceral and immersive exploration of life, desire, violence, and mortality, unfolding as an ongoing transformation rather than a fixed state. The choice of a verb rather than a noun in the title signals a process without resolution—one that mirrors the cyclical, ever-shifting nature of the female body. Fontaine-Wolf’s work challenges historical representations of femininity, rejecting linear narratives in favor of fluidity, ambiguity, and perpetual change.

Set in darkness, the film offers glimpses of a half-submerged female figure, her body shifting between vulnerability and power. The interplay of water and flesh evokes ancient myths of transformation, yet here, metamorphosis is neither punishment nor escape, but a raw, physical reality—an assertion of the body’s rhythms, from menstruation to birth, from pleasure to pain. The deep reds, fleeting highlights, and textured shadows imbue the imagery with a sense of both sensuality and unease, inviting multiple interpretations.

Sound plays a vital role in the work, capturing the internal and external worlds that intersect within the body. The artist’s own breath and heartbeat, along with incidental noises from her surroundings, ground the film in lived experience, reinforcing the body’s presence within an indifferent world. Metamorphose is an exploration of transformation as a fundamental condition of existence—one that resists containment, challenges expectation, and demands to be witnessed in all its complexity.