Aquarelle
2026 · 2m
Directed by Shahizan Daveau
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A painter creates the portrait of the woman who marked his entire existence, in a love letter to art in all its forms and to its capacity to keep memories alive.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A love letter to art and memory sounds like the kind of thing that puts me to sleep, but I'd need to see if Daveau actually does something *weird* with the premise—whether the painting itself becomes unreliable, or the act of creation unravels the nostalgia. Two minutes isn't enough to subvert sentiment, so I'm skeptical.
Daveau's premise positions itself squarely in a classical lineage—the artist's memorial, the work as vessel—and at 2 minutes, the discipline required to honor both the romantic tradition and the formal constraints of the format suggests real curatorial intention; the melancholic tone and the act of creation as preservation feel like they've been thought through with genuine rigor.
The question is whether Daveau trusts the watercolor medium itself to do the emotional work, or if there's a specific cut, a held frame, a moment where the painting's incompleteness becomes the whole point—that's the decision that either makes this a greeting card or something worth watching.