melaina chole

Melaina chole

Melaina chole is an 11-minute film that draws on Aristotle’s writings about ‘melancholics’ (hoi melancholikoi). In this early work Noppen examines the concept of melancholia otherwise known as 'black bile', a mental condition characterised by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and even hallucinations and delusions. 

‘Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts are clearly melancholics, and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile?’ (Problemata XXX.1 953a10-14, translated by E.S. Forster, Oxford, 1927), asks Aristotle.

The discernment of melancholia evidently dates from another age but on an intellectual level, the physicality and expressive embodiment of this condition fascinated Noppen. The choice of subject was also intimately linked to the emotional state of the artist, who suffered from anxiety and depression at a very young age. The nature of this short cinematic work is somewhat dark, as is that of many of Noppen’s early production.