With Réveils in 1988, Pierrick Sorin began the work of self-filming that was to become his trademark. Filmed in Super 8 then transferred to video for distribution purposes, the film consists of a series of shots that are roughly joined together. The triviality of the subject and the manner of filming using a fixed shot and no editing places Réveils in the experimental category of filmed diary. Pierrick Sorin adds a comic aspect and a dimension of the 'system' that belongs to the methods of presenting contemporary art. As he explains in the title sequence, each shot was determined by a pre-established programming of the camera, which was triggered when the alarm clock went off. The result is certainly amusing – a self-portrait of the artist half asleep, taken by surprise in this intimate moment. Barely awake, he complains of feeling 'tired' and, every morning, tries to find an excuse for his condition. The repetitive structure increases the comic effect and puts the author in a repeated situation of failure. Here, it is the image of the artist – usually perceived as a creator – that is called into question.

After Réveils, Pierrick Sorin made a number of videos where he is always featured in situations of self-derision, alone or accompanied by a double, in anti-hero situations (catastrophes, making fun of the traditional clichés of art, practical jokes…), which have the same comic driving force as the burlesque films of the 1920's. Ever faithful to these playlets, his current work has evolved to a greater level of sophisticated means. His recent installations have shifted video towards holograms or three-dimensional animations, and the artist's domestic environment has given way to a theatrical décor. In a return to the early days of cinematography, Pierrick Sorin proposes "black boxes that resemble the Black Maria, the black box that Edison had built to record short sequences that ranged from music hall to basic ethnography [1].

[1] Elisabeth Milon, "Pierrick Sorin, le Sorin ou l'art du premier degré", Art Press, number 258, June 2000.