Ernest Pignon-Ernest’s _in situ_ collages, which led to _Napoli’s Walls_ in the early 2000s—a hundred black-and-white images inspired by depictions of death in Naples and Caravaggio’s paintings—did not go unnoticed. In _Characters On A Wall_, clarinetist, saxophonist, and jazz composer Louis Sclavis takes his fellow musicians—Sarah Murcia, Christophe Lavergne, and Benjamin Moussay—on a journey following in the footsteps of his friend, the visual artist: from Brest with Jean Genet to Rome with Pasolini, and from Charleville to Abyssinia with Rimbaud.
“Ernest Pignon’s images give me movement. I feel like I’m collaborating with a dancer. More than the aesthetics of the image, it’s the movement it creates that interests me,” says Sclavis, a true alchemist of sound and imagery. Much like Chassol, Louis Sclavis composes from images and has built an extensive filmography, including two films by Amos Gitai.