In Absent Places We Dwell

in absent places we dwell
snark! I have
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place for a
saId It twIce:
what I tell you three tImes Is true.
Lewis Caroll, The Hunting of the Snark, 1874
Just the
I have saId It thrIce:
#2 comme un vIsage auquel on parle et quI s' altre avec les un atlas miragique , In Absent Places mots Conu tel
3
19
that alone should

Just the place for a snark!
Piano Nobile inaugure son nouvel espace avec une proposition curatoriale trois voix1 dans laquelle des ides et des champs d'applications a priori htrognes se cherchent, se rencontrent et s'loignent selon des rythmes discontinus pour tisser des correspondances. Trois voix, parce qu'il vaut mieux dire trois choses diffrentes que trois fois la mme. What I tell you three times is true est un leurre parce que ce n'est pas en rptant une formule qu'on fabrique un Snark: au mieux on conoit une fable, au pire on fait de la propagande, compagne du dogme et de l'autorit. Quant notre polyphonie, elle se veut dispersion et dsordre, conversation et corrlation, mais aussi exprience, en opposition au diktat (rptition monotonique Just the place for a Snark!) qui n'offre qu'illusion et apparence. l'instar de la pense en archipel d'Edouard Glissant, cette polyphonie tisse deux ralits contradictoires: l'isolement d'un ct et la liaison de l'ensemble de l'autre. Ce paradoxe mne au dialogue, au dbordement infini, l'effacement des frontires et la possibilit d'habiter des lieux absents. Un espace pluriel et crole est imaginer, occup par des objets entre lesquels chacun peut agencer sa lecture. Se compose alors un atlas au sein duquel s'enchevtrent les paysages erratiques du contemporain et les formes de penses des artistes invits. comment ces voIx rsonnent: et comment d' autres voIx se sont JoIntes aux ntres: Hors-lieu, sans-lieu, non-lieu; la notion mme d'atopie dploie un vaste paysage smantique aux frontires indfinissables. C'est donc tout naturellement que le chur s'est form, car chacun avait raconter et faire entendre: Des dispositifs qui branlent les fondements de notre perception de la ralit; un voyage la frontire entre l'extrieur et l'intrieur qui nous entrane vers des territoires impossibles; des recoupements entre l'criture, la photographie et la sculpture; des images qui se crent via la flnerie; une sculpture nomade imagine comme un satellite de l'exposition; la reprsentation de pierres ordinaires et mystrieuses combine un registre Dada; un dessin de l'invisible, le monde souterrain des aquifres; le film d'une carrire de marbre qui invite contempler les traces du temps et de ses rsultantes complexes; des photographies de pierres disperses au sol qui, lorsque l'image fait place l'objet, crent un vertige; un cratre film depuis un avion qui nous donne voir la totalit d'une exprience normalement fragmente; le mythe de la fondation de Carthage revisit, entre exprience scientifique et potique, allgorie de l'origine, chaologie; l'investigation d'un site spcifique qui rinvestit la mmoire d'un lieu; une peinture abstraite qui saisit, entre documentation et interprtation, les tourments des meutes grecques; les photographies d'arbres et de rues comme tmoins muets (mais toujours graves) de l'histoire la grande comme la petite; la trace et la narration d'une exprience psycho-gographique entreprise il y a six ans dans les rues de Palerme; un travail photographique autour d'un livre au titre vocateur: Digging Up The Past.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Et comme chacun de nous est plusieurs, a fait dj beaucoup de monde. Roland Barthes, Le Plaisir du Texte, Paris, Seuil, 1993 Terme invent par Charles Fourrier dans la Fausse Industrie, 1836. Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes, Paris, Seuil, 1995 Parce qu'elle chappe la taxinomie. Notes sur le protocole harmonique: en amont de l'exposition, une bote outils (textuelle, comme la mtaphore foucaldienne) a t envoye par les commissaires de l'exposition tous les artistes. Conue telle une partition, elle contient l'ensemble des trois voix.
encourage the crew.
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#1 exposition renvoie autant par son titre que horror vacuI Cette
We Dwell trace un paysage mouvant aux horizons toujours fuyants. La complexit des schmas artistiques abords tissent des rseaux de correspondances entre les uvres, souvent mi-chemin entre exploration et introspection les atopies tant la fois ailleurs et ici, collectives et individuelles , et faonnent une exposition la limite du dehors et du dedans, un habitacle en drive4 qui nous transporte hors de nous-mmes, dans un voyage immobile.
par ses uvres l'absence, mais une absence qui aurait la particularit d'tre habite comme on habite un espace ou une ide. La rification de l'absence peut paratre une trange entreprise, si ce n'est qu'elle s'appuie ici sur un outil de mesure exprimental: l'atopographie, c'est--dire la reprsentation de l'atopie qui, sans lieu et hors langage, ne peut tre prise en charge par aucune collectivit, aucune mentalit, aucun idiolecte2. Les stratgies des diffrents artistes tentent de rsoudre l'nigme: comment montrer ce qui n'apparat pas?
#3 la conqute de l InutIle le dernier para' de l'exposition, Comme leitmotiv
pianO nObile GeneVe `

route des acacias 76 www.pianonobile. ch
graphe du livre Lieux et non-lieux (1977) de Jean Duvignaud: Dans le dsert, il arrive que le vent travaille la poussire et la terre. L'humidit s'en mle. Une lente et matrielle application faonne ce que nous appelons des fleurs de sable. C'est nous qui les appelons ainsi. Un lieu se compose ainsi sans nous que nous nous attribuons par l'exercice littral de la mtaphore. Et mme, on fait commerce de ces fleurs! Mais la matire figure des formes dans l'espace. Et nous les achevons en leur attribuant abusivement un mot qui les attire dans notre discours []. Cette trahison qui concentre nos proccupations pourrait tre synthtise par ceci n'est pas une fleur des sables. Car comment ne pas penser Magritte en lisant cet extrait la substitution dvorante de l'informe (inclassable5) par la forme (classe) du seul fait d'une maigre ressemblance rappelle l'adage du peintre belge dissociant la reprsentation de l'objet en ralit.
l 'orIgIne de l 'exposItIon est la naIssance de l 'harmonIe6.
20
snark! I have
that alone should
Just the place for a snark!
what I tell you three tImes Is true.
Lewis Caroll, The Hunting of the Snark, 1874 Piano Nobile is inaugurating its new space with a curatorial proposition in three voices1, in which ideas and fields of applications, seemingly heterogeneous, search for each other, meeting and moving away again, according to discontinuous rhythms in order to weave relations. Three voices, because it's better to say three different things than repeat one thing three times identically. What I tell you three times is true is a deception because it is not by repeating a formula that we fabricate a Snark: at best, we conceive a tale, at worst we do propaganda (which leads to dogma and authority). However, our polyphony is meant to be scatter and disorder, conversation and correlation, but also experience, as opposed to the Diktat of order (monotonic repetition Just the place for a Snark!) that only offers an illusion and appearance. Like Edouard Glissant's archipelagic thought, this polyphony gathers in one fabric two contradictory realities: isolation on one hand and bonding of the whole on the other hand. It is that paradox that leads us to dialogue, infinite overflow, erasing of boundaries and the possibility to dwell in absent places. A plural and Creole space is to be imagined, occupied by objects in between all of us can arrange ways of reading. An atlas is thus composed in which erratic landscapes and thought forms are entangled. how these voIces resound:
place for a
saId It twIce:
I have saId It thrIce:
#2 lIke talkIng to a face that alters miragique words wIth atlas, In Absent Conceived like a
3
Just the
encourage the crew.

and how other voIces JoIn ours:
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Out-place, off-place, non-place; the very notion of atopia opens out a vast semantic landscape with undefined boundaries: thus the chorus has developed very naturally, because everyone had something to tell with: Devices that undermine our perceptual fundamentals; a voyage between inscape and landscape; cross-checks between writing, photography and sculpture; images that are created while strolling; a nomadic sculpture imagined like a satellite of the exhibition; the representation of ordinary and mysterious stones combined with a dada register; a drawing of the invisible, the underground world of aquifers; the movie of a marble quarry that invites us to contemplate the traces of time and its complex resultants; photographs of stones scattered on the floor which dizzyingly turn into objects; a crater filmed from a plane that offers a total vision instead of a fragmented one; a poetic and scientific reenactment of the myth of the Carthage foundation; the inquiry on a place that is no more; the abstract representation, between documentation and interpretation, of the Greek riots of February; photographs of trees that are the silent witnesses of (macro and micro) history; psycho-geography in the streets of Palermo; eight photographs of the same book bearing this evocative title: Digging Up The Past.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Places We Dwell draws a changing landscape with fleeting horizons. The complexity of the broached artistic schemes weaves networks of relations among the works which are often situated in between exploration and introspection (atopias being simultaneously elsewhere and here, collective and individual). Thus an exhibition on the fringe of the outside and inside takes shape, a drifting habitation4 that takes us on a still voyage.
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#1 horrorthrough the works presenvacuI Because of its title and
ted, this exhibition clearly refers to absence, but to an absence that would have the peculiarity to be inhabited (like one inhabits a space or an idea). The reification of absence can be conceived as an extravagant venture. Only it relies on an experimental measuring instrument: atopography, that is to say the representation of atopia, which because it has no place and no language cannot be taken over by any collectivity, any mentality, and any idiolect2. The different strategies implemented by the participating artists attempt to solve the enigma: how to show what is invisible?
#3 the conquest ofleitmotiv foruseless last parathe the exhibition, the As a
graph of Jean Duvignaud's book, Place and nonplaces (1977): In the desert, the wind often shapes the dust and the soil. Humidity follows. A slow and material process forms what we have named sand roses. This is what we call them. A place is thus composed without our intervention which we attribute with the literal exercise of the metaphor. We even trade these roses! But the matter outlines forms within the space. And we finish them (off) by ascribing them a word that lures them into our discourse This treachery that concentrates all of our preoccupations could be synthesized with this is not a sand rose. For how not to think of Magritte when one reads this excerpt: the devouring substitution of the non-form (unclassifiable5) by the form (classified) because of a meager resemblance reminds us of the adage of the Belgian painter dissociating the representation with the object in reality.
Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd Roland Barthes, the Pleasure of the Text, Blackwell publishers, 1990 After a word invented by Charles Fourier Roland Barthes, Barthes by Barthes, Hill and Wang, 2010 Because it escapes taxonomy Notes on the harmonic protocol: prior to the exhibition, the three curators have sent a tool box (textual, like the foucauldian metaphor) to all the participating artists. Conceived like a score, it contains all of the three voices.

route des acacias 76 www. pianonobile. ch
the orIgIn of the show Is the bIrth of harmony6.
Petra Elena Khle / Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin
Ich verbrachte dIe

meIste ZeIt alleIne In
21 There, where I should have been yesterday I am here today . . Mapping the search, diaporama en temps rel, 31934 images, 532 h 14 min, 2006
botanIschen 21 parks oder an

dU septem bre aU OctObre 2012
27 dIe ItalIenIsch sprIcht, fhrte

pferderennen und petra,

IntervIews und rerInthe.
cherte ber
chIerlaby -
Haben die Begegnungen, die wh- Did the encounters during your trip rend eurer Reise in Palermo stattge- to Palerme influence the protocols, funden haben, das Protokoll und die the rules which dictated the beginning
VF: VF: NVPO: NVPO:
22 Interview mit PEK: Petra Elena Khle und von VF: Vianney Fivel.
NVPO:
Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin
Interview with PEK: Petra Elena Khle and by VF: Vianney Fivel.
NVPO:
Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin
Regeln die den Anfang des Projekts of this project? zeichneten, beeinflusst? Yes. We had to adapt to the setting Ja. Wir mussten im Laufe der Zeit und while in transit, and based on these exauf Grund der Ereignisse das Setting an- perienced we discussed and developed a passen und immer wieder neu diskutieren. way to proceed. The most important event Ein einschneidender Moment war, als Petra was when Petra found the hotel where I was
nach zwei Wochen herausfand, wo mein Hotel staying. These events influenced and modified war. Dieses Ereignis nderte unser Verhalten in- behaviors. nerhalb des Settings erheblich. S.171 (Nicolas) Petra knows where I live. PalS. 171 (Nicolas): Petra weiss, wo ich wohne. Paler- erme is becoming more and more complex bemo wird immer komplexer, weil immer bekannter. (...) cause it is becoming more known. The ensemble Das Ganze verknpft sich immer mehr zu einem Teppich. weaves itself to be more and more like a rug. Auch hielten wir gewisse Regeln, die wir uns gesetzt hatWe did not respect certain rules that we had set when ten, nicht ein: S. 89 (Petra): (...) Gehrt es zum Spiel, sich an die Regeln zu we left: halten? Regeln sind die ausformulierten mglichen bertretungen, S.89 (Petra) Is a part of play to respect rules? Rules are
Strafen die Legitimation des Regelbruchs. Ein Schwur lebt von der possible transgressions, and streets are the legitimation of
kein Versprechen abgegeben werden. (...) betrayal. If there is a desire to do something, the pledge is not S. 133 (Nicolas): (...) Alles ist eine Mischung von Regeln einhalten und Re- of interest. geln brechen und es ist trotz Abmachung nicht klar, welche man einhlt und welche
nicht. (...) Das Regelwerk, welches wir uns auferlegt h at t en , wur de zum Sy st em un d d omi n i erte unsere Verhalten. Im Grunde genommen ist die Anlage vergleichbar mit jedem politischen System ausser, dass kein Kontrollsystem wie die Polizei oder das Militr existiert, das uns zur Ordnung auffordern knnte. PEK: Nicht nur die Treffen haben die Anlage verndert, das Handeln an sich steht in einer Art Spannungsverhltnis zu den Regeln. Wir wollten die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines zuflligen Treffens untersuchen. Doch schliesslich ging es viel mehr um die Momente in denen man sich verpasst und wie man in der Banalitt des Alltags mit der eigenen Fremdheit, Sehnsucht und Einsamkeit umgeht. In den P rot okollen t ret en di e Begegn un gen als Leerstellen in der ansonsten fortlaufenden Aufzeichnung auf.
VF:
Mglichkeit, diesen zu brechen. Bestnde kein Verlangen danach, msste the rupture of rules. Life is judged based on the possibility of
except that there was never an instance of control such as the police or army, which
could force us to follow a protocol. PEK: We wanted to investigate the possibility of a chance meeting. During these lonely moments, we faced our own foreignness, loneliness and longing, which became much more important. In the protocol, the chance encounters appeared in a void space within a continued trail. VF: Did you sense yourself more as outside of the world that you explored (observers) or in interaction with elements, the people you encountered (actors)? NVPO: Our social space was very much influ-
The rules that we imposed became a system and dominated our behavior. In the beginning of the framework, it seemed to resemble a political system,
S.133 (Nicolas) The ensemble is a mix of respecting and ignoring rules, even after having found an agreement is never quite so clear.
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Habt ihr euch eher ausserhalb von dem gefhlt was ihr erkundschaftet (observateurs) oder habt ihr mit den Elementen und den Personen denen ihr begegnet seid interagiert (acteurs)? NVPO: Unser sozialer Raum wurde von der Versuchsanordnung stark beeinflusst. Bei beiden manifestierte sich das auf ganz unterschiedlicher Art und Weise. Ich verbrachte die meiste Zeit alleine in Botanischen Parks oder an Pferderennen und Petra, die italienisch spricht, fhrte Interviews und recherchierte ber Labyrinthe. Dies und der unterschiedliche Umgang mit den Medien Text und Fotografie, waren die Hauptmotivation um die Publikation in zwei Bcher zu gliedern, welche abgesehen von Format und Papier unterschiedlich gestaltet sind. Dass die Bcher genau den selben Umfang haben, ist letztendlich Zufall. PEK: Die Ausgangslage hatte durchaus ein Moment von Distanziertheit wie man sie bei einem observateur vermuten wrde. Wir dachten uns
Sachverhalt untersuchen wollten. Doch bereits da begannen die ersten Schwierigkeiten. Eine der Regeln war, dass systematisches Suchen untersagt sei. Doch was bedeutet systematisches Suchen, wo endet Systematik und wo beginnt Intuition? Ist Intuition der undurchschaubare Gegenpol zur Systematik, oder liegt dieser bloss eine ungleich komplexere Vorstellung von System zugrunde? Wir kannten die andere Person und glaubten zu wissen, wo sie sich befinden knnte was sich im brigen nicht unbedingt bewahrheitet hat dies beeinflusste die Gedanken, die Wege. Wir waren sowohl diejenigen, die die Regeln aufstellen, als auch die, die das Experiment durchfhren und wir sind es auch, die die Daten danach auswerten. Keine Trennung also zwischen Beobachter/in und Beobachtetem/r. Doch die einzelnen Regeln kreierten nach kurzer Zeit ein System von Handlungen, in welchem wir die bersicht verloren hatten und in dem sich selbst die Ausgangslage zu
Die zunehmende Verstrickung in die selbst bestimmten Regeln wurde berlagert vom Gefhl der Knstlichkeit, das durch die dauernde Aufzeichnung der eigenen Wege und Gedanken entstand. Und diese Knstlichkeit kreierte gleichzeitig eine Distanz zur Situation, die sich durch das Transkribieren, Auswerten und berarbeiten noch verstrkte. VF: Ihr benutzt das GPS auf ungewhnliche Art und Weise, ihr verndert den Nutzen dieser Technologie, die unter anderem zu berwachungszwecke eingesetzt wird. Ich habe diesen Satz von Knstler Erkki Kurenniemi im Text von Lars Bang Larsen gelesen: As long as humans misuse technology, we will never be slaves to it. Kann man in eurer Arbeit von einem kybernetischen Universum sprechen, das ein berwachungssystem und den daraus resultierenden Messungen mit euren persnlichen Gefhlen konfrontiert? NVPO: Das GPS Gert, das Diktaphone und der Fotoein Regelwerk aus, mit dessen Hilfe wir einen apparat schaffte eine eigene Dynamik, die uns strker
beeinflusste als wir im Vorfeld erwartet hatten. Wie Vilm Flusser in seinen Gedanken betont, prgt uns der Apparat sowohl auf der Gefhls- als auch der Handlungsebene stark. Man kann die Arbeit also durchaus als univers cyberntique bezeichnen. Auffallend ist, dass heute jedes Smartphone ber diese drei technischen Mglichkeiten (GPS, Fotografie und Tonaufnahme) verfgt. Der Satz As long as humans misuse technology, we will never be slaves to it erinnert mich an De Certeaus Gedanken in Kunst des Handelns. Und trotzdem, ein Gert anders zu benutzen als es gedacht ist, ist meistens Programm seiner Herstellung. Die Frage, ob man der Sklaverei durch subversive Nutzung eines Gerts entkommt, bezweifle ich. Die Entwicklung oszilliert zwischen den Benutzern, dem Entwickler und dem Gert und kreiert vielmehr ein eigenstndiges und komplexes System, in das wir alle auf die eine oder andere Art involviert sind und das fr das vorherrschende Gefhl der
enced by the protocol. It manifested itself in very different ways. I spent a lot of time alone in the botanic gardens or to watch horse races, and Petra, who speaks Italian, conducted research on labyrinths and interviewed people. This and the different ways to treat the media, text and photography, were the principal motivations to structure the edition in two books. The fact that the two books had exactly the same quantity of information, was actually by chance. PEK: The initial situation brought a true moment of detachment, so that we could really assume the role of observer. We invented a rule through which we wanted to manage an investigation. Then, the first difficulties started. Systematic research was prohibited. But how does one define a systematic research, where VF: You use GPS in an inversed method, you turn does the systematic end and intuition start? Is over the usual usage of this machine, of this technolintuition the opposite of the systematic, or is it simply an more complex idea with the system as a base? We knew one another and we thought we knew where the other could be found this influenced the thoughts and the pathways. We had, at the same time, placed the rules and executed an experience, and afterwards we analyzed the information. Thus, there was no separation between observer and the person being observed. However, the rules themselves very quickly created a system of actions in which we lost a view of the ensemble and in which the initial situation seemed to divert, at the point where we risked losing the point of view of the observer and on the other the capacity of action of the actor The increasing implication in the rules which we placed ourselves, was superposed by an artificial
ogy, which operates also as a technology of control. I read this phrase of the artist Erkki Kurenniemi in a text of Lars Bang Larsen: As long as humans misuse technology, we will never be slaves to it. Could you speak of a cybernetic universe in your work, opened up by the technology of control, measure, and your own sensations? NVPO: The GPS, the dictaphone and the camera institute a specific dynamic, which influenced us more than we expected. As Wilm Flusser has underlined in his writings, the device influences us on a sensory level. We can thus absolutely designate a cybernetic universe of work. What is surprising is that today, each smartphone has these three technical capacities (GPS, camera and sound recorder). The phrase As long as humans misuse technology, we will never be slaves to it, reminds me of De Cer-
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sentiment, which was made through created by the constant recording of our pathways and our thoughts. This artifice created at the same time a distance to the situation, which grew because of the transcription and exploitation of these informations.
Machtlosigkeit verantwortlich ist. PEK: In gewisser Weise macht unsere Art der Nutzung Teile des Dispositivs dieser Technologie sichtbar. Am eindrcklichsten ist fr mich der Umstand, dass alle verschieben schien, so dass uns sowohl die bersicht des observateurs als auch die Handlungsf- Orte an denen wir nicht gewesen sind, auf der Karte schlichtweg nicht existieren. Die Orte, die wir nicht behigkeit des acteurs zu entgleiten drohte. treten haben, werden auf der Karte zu weissen Flchen der Nichtexistenz.
teau in The Practice of Everyday Life. Nevertheless, using a device for something that is was not intended for, constitutes one part of his greater elaboration. I doubt that the human becomes less of a slave to a device by a subjective usage. The development oscillates between users, developers and the device, and creates a system quite independent and complex, in which we are all involved in a certain way and are responsible for the dominant feeling of powerlessness (impotence). PEK: In one aspect, our art makes this part of technology visible. The most notable fact for me is that all the places that we did not visit just do not exist on the map. The places where we were not are blank zones of non existence.

Liudvikas Buklys
there I met not only

1 2 Holder (Study of a Flower Pot), fer, dimensions variables, 2010 Poster device, bois, dimensions variables, production pour IAPWD 2012
23
the gold Is burIed, ut b 21

dU septem bre aU
the man who knows where
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1
also got famIlIar

wIth a space of
satIons and story pianO nObile GeneVe `

meetIngs, onverc
tellIng.
2
24 Liudvikas Buklys
Interview with LB: Liudvikas Buklys by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas.

CMdH:
I have the impression that your work brings us to some invisible places (under the earth for example), to fro-
zen sceneries (I see treasure hunters resting under a tree) and to forgotten events (what seems to be a broken frame
induces an impossible recollection). These fragmented structures that constitute your body of work seem to be like celibate machines: these structures could be therefore themselves, encountering only themselves, because they are a system (since they refer to
places far out of reach): in that sense they are atopic. I feel you are playing Tom Thumb, so my first
question would be: where are the white pebbles leading us? I think it leads us to the place where stories usually
LB:
are being told about things. And those stories I believe are organized or generated by things themselves,
for example by their presence or absence (if to take it as characteristics). So my interest is to think in terms of such
space. And I absolutely don't mean it's somewhere beyond. It most probably leads us to where we are, and becomes some
sort of realism. What kind of realism are you referring to? Philosophical realism
CMdH:
or realism in the arts? I am now struck by the resemblance of Meeting a man who knows where the gold is buried and Bonjour, Monsieur Cour-
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bet. But that is a trivial remark. How does your artistic practice relate to a
of participation. There I met not only the man who knows where the gold is buried, but also got familiar with a space of meetings, conversations and storytelling. Which I
tiality which is a common tradition in conceptual art.
given reality? LB: Yes Meeting the man... was a piece or a time where I was rethinking the idea
thought is very similar to participation in the art world. Also, it was a way out of autoreferen-
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Erik van der Weijde
Der Baum (Location: Street where kidnap victim Natasha Kampusch was held, Strasshof a.d. Nordbahn), Der Baum (Location: Ganghofersiedlung (former Siedlung Gringheim), Regensburg), Der Baum (Location: Alfama, Lissabon), Der Baum (Location: Biennial building, Sao Paulo) Jet d'encre sur Photorag, encadr 68 x 53 cm (sans cadre 65 x 50 cm), Edition de 5 + 1 AP 2010 ,
25
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27 reVersed archiVe.
can definitely
be seen as a
der baUm

26
Interview with EvdW: Erik van der Weijde by VF: Vianney Fivel.
VF:
Your black and white photographs create a tension between the past, present and future, the narratives are setback, different layers of time meet.
Do you think that the series Der Baum can be seen as a reversed archive? Could you tell me a bit more about the
different temporalities you gather within the same picture? How did you choose these specific locations? Der Baum can definitely be seen as a reEvdW:
also. Therefore the time between the click of the picture and the viewer looking at it, becomes yet another layer of time and place. It's a bit like how Time maMac or different layers of time, in the case of my photograph. All the locations I choose come from my personal interests.
because of the point of view as well. So the time when I clicked the photo is one layer, but all the history that culminates in that point, is
show that I was on that actual spot. I am both the maker of the photograph and my own witness. The viewer becomes a part of this tableau
versed archive. As in many series, the point of view is very important. In showing a big part of the ground, in combination with the kind of lenses used, I
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chine is designed by Apple. If you are familiar with it, you instantly browse through it, through these folders on a
I investigate small news excerpts or big historical events that shape the society of which I am a part of and then I travel to these
places that go about unnoticed. Everything I photograph is related to me, which makes it very subjective. By the way, as I make pictures
I try to become more objective, or universal. So as I combine all these personal fascinations, the work becomes subjective again. It's a constant
dialogue between my own thoughts and feelings and the world that we all are a part of. Is this ok for you? It's quite complex, I mean for me to come to the actual point
when I click on a certain spot in a certain place around the world, a whole history must have gone both through that spot but also through me...(.)
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Nicolas Momein
tIques se rapprochant
le camIon a des caractrIsCul-de-sac, camion, laine de roche, dimensions variables, production pour IAPWD 2012
27
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de celles d'une petIte
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aspect extrIeur,
volumtrIque. le volume ralIs
archItecture ou d'un dIcule:

taIlle, capacIt
l IntrIeur ' parasIte
les lIgnes de force du
vhIcule.
de laIne de roche en suIvant

l espace par ' accumulatIon
La cration spcifique que tu pro- This specific creation for the exhiduis pour In Absent Places We Dwell bition In Absent Places We Dwell is s'inscrit dans une rflexion qui t'a t based on a proposition reflecting on
M-EK: M-EK:
28 Interview avec NM: Nicolas Momein par M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
Interview with NM: Nicolas Momein by M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
propose autour de la thmatique cen- the primary themes and contents of the trale de l'exposition, soit l'ide de mani- exhibition: the idea of a temporary mafestation temporaire d'un lieu absent, la nifestation of an absent place, the notion
notion d'atopogaphie. Utilisant l'espace of atopography. Occupying the space that qui te sert de stockage, de transport, ven- you use for storage, transport or also as a
tuellement d'abri temporaire, tu as construit, temporary shelter, you have made, with the l'aide d'un corps de mtier comptent, une help of a competent professional, a sculpture
s c u l p t u r e b a s e d ' u n m a t r i a u d ' i s o l a t i o n . I l with a material used for insulation. The space s'est agi de remplir le volume du camion, par of the van was filled, by adding (by even projecrsultat est tout la fois un contenant dfinissant un that defines a potential space, potentially penetrable, espace potentiel, potentiellement pntrable, un espace an autonomous exhibition space (creation of a space of
organique, un all over monochrome ou une sculpture envi- ronmental sculpture. How would you situate this hybrid piece? ronnementale. I do not think of the piece as hybrid. I consider it as sculpture. Comment est-ce que tu situes cette pice hybride? Simply. And like all sculpture, it was realized within a given space
NM:
ajout (projection, mme) de matire, autour d'un ting) material, around a necessary void left by the vide ncessaire laiss par le corps construisant. Le body who made it. The result is all at once a content
d'exposition autonome (cration d'un lieu d'automons- selfshowing while parked within a public space), a surface tration parqu dans l'espace public), une surface texture of an organic texture, an all over monochrome and an envi-
Je ne pense pas que cette pice soit hybride. Mais je la considre and then was transported to a given place, (tant donn) not to quote comme une sculpture. Simplement. Et comme toute sculpture, celle- Duchamp.
NM:
Elle intgre des problmatiques communes tout sculpteur: format, chelle, such as transport, packaging, deliveryfinally, it is clearly integrated into the field matriaux, technique. Mais elle interroge aussi les proccupations pratiques telles of the readymade.
que le transport, l'emballage, la livraison. Enfin, elle s'intgre clairement au champ The van has characteristics which approach
du ready-made. Le camion a des caractristiques se rapprochant de celles d'une petite architecture ou d'un dicule: aspect extrieur, taille, capacit volumtrique. Le volume ralis l'intrieur du camion parasite l'espace par accumulation de laine de roche en suivant les lignes de force du vhicule. Ce matriau et cette technique sont normalement utiliss pour l'isolation des btiments. Nous n'en voyons pas dans les maisons l'tat brut, o il est recouvert par d'autres mata small architecture or a small edifice: exterior aspect, size and volumetric capacity. The volume achieved in the interior of the van interferes with the space by an accumulation of rockwool following the lines of force of the vehicle. This material and this technique are normally used for the insulation of buildings. We do not see them in houses in its raw state because it is recovered by other materials but it is visible in many production places such as factories, studios and schools. Cul de sac is the van in its entirety, transfor-
ci a t ralise dans un espace donn. Elle a ensuite t transporte The piece integrates the problematic that all sculptors share: format, scale, vers le lieu tant donn qui m'invitait, pour ne pas citer Duchamp. material, techniquebut the piece also interrogates practical preoccupations
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riaux, mais il est visible dans de nombreux lieux de production comme les usines, les ateliers et les coles. Cul de sac est le camion dans son entier, transform et devenu support une projection intrieure brute. Dans le cadre de l'exposition In Absent Places We Dwell je ne parlerais pas d'un lieu de monstration autonome mais plutt d'une sculpture annexe l'espace de Piano Nobile. M-EK: Effectivement, ton uvre fonctionne en NM: Oui, ce qui m'intresse dans ces deux uvres, et quelque sorte comme un satellite qui dialogue que je poursuis, c'est de quelle manire une pice distance avec d'autres pices de l'exposition. se construit dans un espace impos, par contrainte.
Il y a dans le processus de travail li cette pice une part d'alatoire: la forme ne pouvait pas tre entirement prvue, elle devait chapper en quelque sorte la matrise du sculpteur; de mme que ces blocs de sel dont tu as dlgu la taille (ou l'rosion) des langues bovines Incomplete closed cube Aliboron l'a digr, 2011. Est-ce une manire de travailler que tu poursuivras?
med and having become the support of a raw interior projection. Within the context of the exhibition In Absent Places We Dwell, I would not speak of an autonomous site of monstration but more of an annexed sculpture in relation to the space of Piano Nobile. M-EK: Indeed your artwork functions in a way as a satellite that holds a dialogue at distance with other pieces of the exhibition. There is an unpredictability in the process of this work, the form could not be entirely foreseen, and has to escape somehow to the mastery of
the sculptor; as well as those blocks of salt where you have delegated the cut (or the erosion) to bovine tongues (Incomplete closed cube Aliboron l'a digr, 2011). Is this a way of working that you will pursue?
27
Yes, in these two pieces I am interested to see how a piece can be made within an imposed space, by constraints, and I will continue working in this direction. In the Incomplete closed cube, the work which I delegate to the cows is a work of subtraction of the material through licking. But the result depends just as well on that which I give to lick, that is, a geometric fraction of these manufactured salt cubes (made with boxes surrounding the volume) and on the untamable repetition of the repetitive passage of the tongue. In cul de sac, the constraint (but could we still call
NM:
OctObre 2012
Dans les Incomplete closed cube, le travail que je dlgue aux bovins est un travail de soustraction de la matire par lchage. Mais le rsultat dpend autant de ce que je leur donne lcher, c'est--dire une fraction gomtrique de ces cubes de sel manufacturs (grce des botes entourant le volume), que de la rptition alatoire du passage rptitif de la langue. Dans Cul de sac, la contrainte (peut-on toujours l'appeler ainsi?) est lie diffrents choix, mais aussi l'aspect pratique de ce qui est disponible, ici et main-
tenant: la taille du camion, sa forme. Ici, le travail s'est fait l'intrieur du vhicule: il fallait que je connaisse un minimum le mtier pour pouvoir envisager la forme. L'ide tait de raliser un volume central l'aide d'une structure recouverte d'un treillis mtallique qui dfinirait la taille de la sculpture tout en laissant l'espace minimum la projection de la matire. Ensuite, j'ai amen le camion proximit d'un chantier, o Abdala, un professionnel du flocage, a ralis le recouvrement directement sur place.
this a constraint?) is linked to different choices or decisions but also to the practical aspect of what is available here and now: the size of the van, its form. Here, the work has been made in the interior of the van. I had to know a minimum of the skills for envisioning the form. The idea was to obtain a central volume from a structure covered with a metallic trellis which would define the size of the sculpture while leaving open the minimum space for the projection of the material. Following, I drove the van close to a construction site,
where Abdala, a professional of flocking took care of the coverage directly on site.

Sarah Burger
Field I, impressions numriques, pierres, terre, 130 x 124 cm, production pour IAPWD 2012
29
Is related to
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to dwell
dIggIng Into the
world.
to buIld/to construct somethIng

on the ground.
ground seems to me to
gesture of InhabItIng thIs
archItecture,
be a very fundamental
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30
How did you lead your research regarding the different aspects of the proposal? It happens very seldom to be in only one place. I'm constantly surrounded
VF: SB:
Interview with SB: Sarah Burger by VF: Vianney Fivel.
rienced as well as by worlds within this entire world as I encounter them in the arts. Here and now are very abstract terms. In so far, I can say that it was the
title that made the link between my work and the exhibition. For the first part of the publication I focused on the image in a mirror and the mysterious
effect of endlessness/eternity that occurs when a reflection is reflected while the piece in the exhibition concentrates on the co-presence of
by images that show me other parts of this world, by knowledge that informs me about things I cannot perceive with my senses or about times I never expe-
spatial objects (stones) and their image in an environment that is now absent. How do you get the different elements that constiVF:
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tute your installation, how do you choose them, do you proceed as a collector, an archaeologist or a craftsman? Stones are stones. Where and how I finally find them
SB:
is not important for their presence in the artwork (or if it is, this context must be present in the work too). Stones are not stones. Every single stone looks different
from the other. For Field I, I chose this place with these stones because it had the characteristics that fit to the plan/ to the concept of the work.
be a very fundamental gesture of inhabiting this world. Digging into the ground means to transform its former surface to make it
To dwell is related to architecture, to build/to construct something on the ground. Digging into the ground seems to me to
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absent. An image of this surface is a shift in time, backwards, referring to a place that doesn't exist anymore. In that sense, an image has
as well. Instead of seeing its actual surface, we look at a completely different surface that belongs to another place, to another time.
the surface of the paper.
magical powers: it makes things visible that may actually not be visible anymore. Printing an image on a paper makes the paper's surface disappear
The work Field I layers all these different present and absent surfaces the objects (stones), their image, the surface of the ground where the stones once were and

Jeanne Macheret
Un site spcifique, dition de 200 livrets, production pour IAPWD 2012
31
m' mprgner I
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e parvIens J
petIt petIt
que Je passe sur
que Je passe y requ' son tour, le lIeu par
vIendra Imprgner
mon travaIl.
cet aller-retour
entre le temps
travers mon travaIl
du lIeu grce
place et le temps
venIr en pense,
plastIque, et J'espre
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32 Interview avec JM: Jeanne Macheret par M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle

M-EK:
Le livre d'artiste Un site spcifique The artist book Un site spcifique, constitue un fragment d'un projet de constitutes a fragment of a project-inM-EK:
Interview with JM: Jeanne Macheret by M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
longue haleine entam l'anne der- process that you have been working on nire, et toujours en cours, la dcou- since last year, while exploring a site
prime sur un papier de couleur choisi spci- photograph printed on a previously and prefiquement, la slection de quelques passages cisely chosen color paper, a selection of some
proposes ce livret qui introduit le sujet tout en cir- of a map. This opens up the subject while circumsconscrivant tes diffrents angles d'approche. En ef- cribing your different angles of approach. Indeed
fet, tes nombreuses dambulations autour du site sont your many ambulations and approaches of the site are reprises dans la carte dplier, comme l'ide de creuser transcribed by the map which can be unfolded, like the
un sillon, au sens figur, pour mieux cerner la problmatique. idea of deepening a groove in the figurative sense, to better La couverture combine une image du site dj vide et la couleur comprehend the problematic; the cover combines an image of
verte de la premire machine coudre Elna, que l'on dcouvre lie the site already empty and the green of the first sewing machine l'histoire du lieu au travers des extraits d'interviews. Cette composition Elna, which we discover to be linked to the historic site of Charmilles d'lments est une manire de travailler ta matire, et tu emploies l'exprescette portion de territoire genevois qui comprend le stade des Charmilles et les sites des anciennes usines Tavaro et Hispano-Suiza, je suis trs vite tombe sur ce qui m'apparaissait comme une lgende urbaine concernant le F.C. Servette: c'est lorsque le club a dmnag au nouveau stade de la Praille qu'il s'est mis perdre tous ses matchs. J'ai alors mis l'ide, trs abstraitement, d'un esprit du lieu, et je cherche, dans le cadre de mon projet, me laisser gagner par cette ide. La lgende urbaine dit que le succs du F.C. Servette tait attach, et mme dpendait, de ce lieu particulier qu'tait le stade des Charmilles. Je pense que l'esprit d'un lieu reprsente l'attachement et l'habitude que l'on a de frquenter un endroit. C'est quelque chose d'important, qui rsiste en partie au langage verbal, rside dans une sensation plutt vague,
verte d'un site, autour de l'ancien stade around the ancient stadium of Charmilles des Charmilles. (Geneva). En trois lments une photographie im- You propose this book in three elements, a
d'interviews menes avec plusieurs personnes interview extracts held with various people widans le cadre de tes recherches, un dessin tu thin the framework of your research, a drawing
sion de sentir l'esprit du lieu. Peux-tu prciser cette expression et parler de la through the interviews. This composition of elements is a way to transcribe your subject matter and you speak of sensing the spirit of the place. mthode choisie pour explorer cette portion de territoire? C o ul d y o u s pea k mo r e p r ec i sel y ab o ut t h i s r eg ard i n g y o u r m et h o d of ex pl o r i n g JM: Lorsque j'ai commenc m'intresser
this portion of the territory? And the specific transcription within this edition?
When I started to become interested in this portion of Genevese territory which contains the stadium of Charmilles as well as the sites of the old factories Tavaro and Hispano-Suiza, I happened upon what seemed to be an urban legend concerning the F.C. Servette: it is when the club had moved into the new stadium at La Praille that they began to lose all their matches. I thus began to emit the idea, very abstractly, of a spirit of places, and let myself become inhabited by this idea, within the framework of my project. The urban legend states that the success of F.C. Servette was attached to this particular place that was the Charmilles stadium. I think that the spirit of a place represents the attachment to and the habitudes of a place: it
JM:
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qu'on avait n'est plus qu'un trs lointain souvenir devenu impalpable, ce jour-l on se sent soulag, car cela signifie qu'on va de l'avant. Je me suis promene de nombreuses reprises autour de la zone que j'avais choisie d'observer, mais j'ai toujours eu la sensation que je ne parvenais pas vritablement saisir quoi que ce soit, et que le rel chappe. C'est lorsque je suis de retour dans mon atelier, que je travaille transcrire dans un langage plastique les lments rcolts propos de ce territoire, que j'ai l'impression de parvenir apprhender, comprendre, ressentir, me rendre compte, au moins en partie. C'est en ralisant des objets, qu'il s'agisse du prsent livre d'artiste ou d'autres pices, qu'un accs au rel a lieu, autrement dit que le rel se trouve ralis. Je parviens m'imprgner petit petit du lieu grce cet aller-retour entre le temps que je passe sur place
difficile dfinir, mais qui peut parfois devenir palpable. L'ide de l'esprit du lieu correspond galement la question de la prsence et, dans le cas du stade des Charmilles, son actuelle absence. En effet, les trois tribunes qui taient encore debout ont t rases il y a quelques mois. Pour moi, comme pour beaucoup d'autres personnes qui connaissaient bien le site, il en existe un souvenir trs vif, relay par des dizaines de photographies. L'image est encore si forte que je suis capable de voir les tribunes leur emplacement d'origine. Je les vois mme beaucoup mieux que je n'arrive me figurer leur absence et apprhender le chantier qui les remplace. Je sais d'exprience que ce sentiment s'estompe avec le temps, et que le jour o l'on se rend compte qu'il a disparu, le jour o l'image
is something important, which resists partially to verbal language, and resides within a rather vague sensation, difficult to define, but which can often become palpable. The idea that the spirit of places corresponds to the question of its presence, and in the case of the stadium of Charmilles, also to its absence. Basically, the three tribunes that were still standing were destroyed a few months ago. For me, as for many other people, there is a very vibrant memory of this place, relayed by the many photographs. The image is still so strong that I am capable of seeing the tribunes and their original placement; I see them perhaps better than when I realize their absence and comprehend the constructions that will replace them. I know by
experience that the sensation disappear through time, and the day when the images becomes no more than distant impalpable memories, we will feel relieved, because this will signify that we are moving forward I walked many times around the zone that I chose to observe, but I always had the sensation that I could not really grasp what it really was and that the real escaped me. It is when I return to my studio, and when I work to transcribe in a formal language the collected elements around this territory, that I have the impression to comprehend, to feel and to realize, at least partly. It is by constructing objects, this artist book or other works, that an access to the real takes place, or we could say that the real is itself realized. I try to soak up the
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The interviews that I held as a part of my research were, in the beginning, not meant to be printed texts; on the contrary, I imagined a sound montage based on the recordings and having them placed throughout the exhibition space. I transcribed these recordings in order to help me edit the sound, thinking that I would understand the text more clearly. It happened that this material did not function as the medium of sound. However, while transcribing, I had the impression that the written text functioned. I believe that I try, while silently reading this text, to hear the voices of the people place little by little by these back-and-forth between speaking. Although it could seem paradoxical, I am the time I spend on the site and the time that I spend convinced, that it is precisely through transcription that we can really hear the people speaking and understand thinking about it or working on it (A small parenthewhat they are saying and being touched by their subject. sis which makes me smile: in 1620, imprgner, the A literary approach could have probably accomplished et le temps que je passe y revenir en pense, tra- entend mieux parler les personnes, et qu'on accde ce French word the artist used which is translated as better the results that I expected, and literature impasvers mon travail plastique, et j'espre qu' son tour qu'elles disent, et aussi qu'on est touch par le propos. soak, signified make pregnant of impregnate). sions me, but it is not where I situate myself. I think of le lieu parviendra imprgner mon travail. (Petite Sans doute qu'une dmarche littraire serait mme transcription as the necessity of a transfer, which implies parenthse qui me fait sourire: en 1620, imprgner d'atteindre le rsultat que j'escompte, et la littrature me transformations. It is in displacing the collected material signifie rendre enceinte). towards other fields than where it comes from, the context passionne, mais ce n'est pas l que je me situe.
Les interviews que j'ai menes dans le cadre de mes recherches n'taient, au dpart, pas destines tre reprises sous forme de texte imprim. Au contraire, j'avais imagin effectuer un montage partir des enregistrements et diffuser le son dans un espace d'exposition. C'est pour m'aider raliser ce montage que j'ai transcrit les enregistrements, pensant que j'y verrais plus clair avec un texte sous les yeux. Il s'est avr que ce matriel ne fonctionnait pas du tout l'tat sonore. Cependant, j'avais eu l'impression, en transcrivant, que le texte crit, lui, fonctionnait. Je crois que je tente de parvenir, lorsqu'on lit silencieusement le texte d'une transcription, entendre la voix des personnes qui parlent. Bien que cela puisse paratre paradoxal, je suis persuade, du moins dans le cas prcis qui m'occupe, que c'est prcisment travers la transcription qu'on
Je conois la transcription comme la ncessit d'un transfert qui implique des transformations. C'est en dplaant le matriel rcolt vers d'autres milieux que celui dont il provient, le milieu de l'dition dans le cas du livre d'artiste que j'ai fabriqu, que je peux esprer rendre aussi dans le sens de redonner quelque chose du territoire que j'explore, ce quelque chose consistant en un mlange d'impressions et de documents, de sensations et de faits. Je m'efforce de rendre prsent, de rendre palpable: c'est-dire partageable.
of editions in the case of the artist book that I made, that I hope to return also in the sense of giving something of the territory that I explore (something consisting of a mlange of impressions and documents, of sensations and acts). I try to make present, to make palpable, that is: to share.

Romain Hamard
Speakers platforms, Placoplatre, peinture, bois, dimensions variables, production pour IAPWD 2012
33
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grec,donc Je restaIs
Je ne parle pas
la place du parlement
meutes, Jen aI cherch les traces.
toute la Journe sur
fIlmer les gens, sans Interprte. les Jours quI ont suIvI les
son origine d'un voyage que tu as effec- takes its place of origin from the trip tu en Grce en fvrier dernier, lors des you took to Greece in February during the
meutes. Peux-tu d'abord nous raconter riots. Could you tell us why you chose to go pourquoi tu es all l-bas, ce que tu y cher- there, what you were looking for and what
et les documents qui en rsultent en un travail into an artistic work? I went to Athens for about two weeks. My initial artistique?
RH: RH:
L'intervention in situ que tu ra- The site-specific intervention that lises Piano Nobile pour l'exposi- you realize at Piano Nobile for the tion In Absent Places We Dwell tire exhibition In Absent Places We Dwell
CMdH: CMdH:
34 Interview avec RH: Romain Hamard par CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
Interview with RH: Romain Hamard by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
chais et ce que tu y as fait? Et ensuite nous you did? Could you also explain how you were expliquer comment tu transformes ce voyage able to transform this trip and its documents
J'ai sjourn environ deux semaines Athnes. project was to make a film, but I did not really have Mon projet initial tait d'y tourner un film, mais je the means nor the contacts. My basic idea was to collect
Je savais le climat plutt tendu qui rgnait l-bas, et je vou- terity plan, lasted for about three days. The day of the vote, about lais voir de mes propres yeux ce qui s'y passait. 300,000 people demonstrated their opposition.
n'avais pas vraiment de mthode et pas vraiment de storiesI knew that the general climate was pretty tense I nte t e r m self w a w s e l go contacts. Il s'agissait d'abord de collecter des histoires... and dewaonstd atoosnse, fohichyprecedhd ttheavore alnythe ingoon.ausThe m r i w e t o sec nd
Les manifestations qui prcdrent le vote du second plan d'aust- The austerity plan was voted for by the parliament, and this day ended in rit ont dur environ trois jours. Le jour du vote, 300 000 personnes riots, and for a good part of the night, banks and historic buildings were burnt.
mine en meutes, et durant une bonne partie de la nuit des banques et des day at Parliament Place filming people, wibtiments historiques ont brl. thout an interpreter. The days that followed Pendant ces trois jours, j'ai film les rassemblements, des images de manifestations the riots, I searched for marks of these three
assez classiques. Je ne parle pas grec, donc je restais toute la journe sur la place du Parlement filmer les gens, sans interprte. Les jours qui ont suivi les meutes, j'en ai cherch les traces. J'ai produit un certain nombre de photographies la srie qui est prsente dans le trailer de In Absent Places We Dwell en fait partie. Ce sont des parties de mobilier urbain dfonces par les meutiers pour servir de projectiles
During these three days, I filmed these rallies, and took images of protests that were ont manifest leur opposition. Le plan d'austrit ayant t vot par le Parlement, la journe s'est ter- rather classic. I did not speak Greek, so I spent the whole
contre les policiers. J'ai photographi une vitrine qui venait d'tre rpare. Une partie du marbre qui la recouvrait avait t brise pendant les meutes, et les propritaires du magasin l'avaient remplace par du Placoplatre qu'ils avaient spray. L'intention tait d'abuser l'il. Cette photo m'a servi de modle, puisque j'ai reproduit ce trompe-l'il. J'ai aussi fait rejouer par une actrice le monologue d'un homme que j'avais film lors d'un rassemblement. Le but est de reproduire ce qui a t enregistr. CMdH: En effet, il me semble qu'il y a dans ton
days of contestations. I produced a number of photographs; the series that I am presenting in the trailer of In Absent Places We Dwell is one part. These are the parts of urban housing buildings smashed by the rioters, used for projectiles against the policemen. I photographed a vitrine which was being repaired, where one part of the marble which had covered the vitrine had been broken during the riots, and the owners of the store had replaced it with a piece of sheetrock which was spraypainted. The intention was to create a trompe l'oeil. I
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travail cette volont de rcuprer, tous azimuts, des lments d'un vnement prcis, de les rassembler, de les slectionner et de les transformer par exemple par le biais de la traduction, de la biffure, du pastiche pour ensuite les rejouer en dehors de leur contexte. Et c'est ce double mouvement de transformation et d'extraction qui m'intresse. Ces nouveaux documents (mtamorphoss) acquirent un statut propre tout en restant rfrencs, parfois la limite du reconnaissable. Je pense ici aussi aux docufictions de Jean Rouch (et peut-tre au Lyric Documentary de Walker Evans), mais surtout Jeremy Deller et son uvre The Battle of Orgreave. Peux-tu nous en dire plus sur
ta dmarche? RH: Je pense que ce double mouvement de transformation et d'extraction intervient ds qu'une information est transmise. Je joue effectivement sur ce double mouvement, j'essaye de le rendre un peu plus visible. Ce qui m'intresse c'est de recrer une situation, de prendre un premier vnement comme dclencheur, comme trame pour en crer un second, qui prend forme dans un processus de transmission. Entre un vnement et sa transmission, il y a toujours un cart, disons que je travaille sur ce dcalage, en slectionnant
des lments (traces) de l'vnement en question, que je vais distordre et combiner. Les lments slectionns sont en gnral des dtails qui ncessitent d'tre activs, mis en uvre. Ce dplacement s'effectue travers une suite d'effets que tu as numrs. J'essaye de ne pas tomber dans les cueils lis aux mdiums que j'utilise, j'essaye d'envisager chaque possibilit lie la transmission de ces documents. C'est pourquoi les images, les films ou encore les entretiens que je ralise subissent des effets, qui vont modifier les formes de ces documents mais pas leurs
contenus. Pour autant qu'ils soient dplacs, transforms, ces lments ne sont jamais loin de la ralit, elle est juste transmise diffremment.
also filmed the monologue of a man which was then re-played by an actress. The intention was to reproduce that which was recorded. CMdH: It seems to be that in your work, there is a desire to recuperate (in all azimuths) the elements of a precise event, to re-assemble these, and through selection and transformation (for example, through the bias of translation, of erasure, of imitation) to replay these aspects outside of their context. And this double movement of transformation and isolation are what interest
me. These new documents (these metamorphic documents) acquire their own status while staying within reference, sometimes at the limit of the recognizable. I think also of the docufictions of Jean Rouch (and also the lyrical documentary of Walker Evans), but mostly of Jeremy Deller and his work The Battle of Orgreave. Could you tell us a bit more about your methodology? RH: I think that this double movement of transformation and isolation intervenes when a piece of information is transmitted. I play effectively on this
double movement, and I try to make this a bit more visible. What interests me is to recreate a situation, and to take the first event as a catalyst as a framework to create a second event, which takes form during a transmission process. Between the event and the transmission, there is always a gap, and thus I work with this discrepancy, selecting elements (traces) of the event in question, then distorting and combining them. The selected elements are, in general, details that must be activated, put into work (mis en oeuvre).
This displacement is accomplished through the number of effects that you have described. I try to not fall into the pitfalls of the mediums that I use, I try to envision each possibility linked to the transmission of these documents. This is why the images, the films or the interviews that I realize, are subjected to effects, which modify the forms of the documents but not the contents. For while they are displaced, transformed, these elements are never far from their reality, they are just differently transmitted.
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Aglaa Konrad
the vIew
opened my
Concrete & Samples III Carrara, 16mm transfr en vido, couleur, muet, 19, 2010
35
on carrara
suddenly
the lIne of
ture/landscape.
21 obJect/ rchIteca
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perspectIve In
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It started In reverse
more pIctorIal representatIon
landscape towards a
of archItecture through
(pIeter brueghel the elder).
from the scale of
the Image of the tower of babel
36 Aglaa Konrad
Concrete & Samples III Carrara, which is projected in the exhibition,

M-EK:
Interview with AK: Aglaa Konrad by M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
portraits of buildings from about the same construction dates; one (Blockhaus, 2007)
is about the church of Sainte Bernadette du Banlay in Nevers (FR) by Claude Parent and
Paul Virilio (built 196366), another (Wotruba Wien, 2009) is about a church by Fritz
ned by Jacques Gillet in collaboration with a sculptor (196768). These buildings share in common the idea
is part of a series of four silent 16mm films (Concrete & Samples I, II, III; Sculpture House). The other films are
Wotruba (built 19671976) and Sculpture House (2007), a private residence in Angleur (BE) desigof architecture as sculpture and a very distinct use of concrete, the two main elements, which are highlighted in
mass construction. In effect, all three re-think architecture and the notion of modernity in a pronouncedly artistic sense. (Text by Katerina
a series of photography (19962003) as a kind of bestiary of singular architectures
worldwide. Carrara (2010), the fourth film of the series, is about a temporary architecture which evolves constantly while blocks or marble are extracted. The focus on a quarry, almost as an earthwork seems to be somehow apart of the other films and their reflection on a certain kind of architecture. It has however the same quality of describing a space, a material and an activity all parts of an economy;
I keep on quoting Katerina Gregos, writing that in that film you fully explore the potential of film as an instrumental medium in the observation, interpretation and experience of architecture and spatial phenomena. Some sequences made me think of your work Boeing Over(photography 1998) as sometimes abstract landscapes becoming a graphic composition of lines. After these quotations and information, can you make a comment on the way you conceived Concrete & Samples and Carrara in particular? AK: Concrete & Samples I, II & III have been slowly developing as a changing interest in examples of modernist principles that tried to escape the rigid dogmatic rituals. It has been the search for the morphologically utmost extreme samples that drove me in the hands of sculptural architecture as a phenomenon. The view on Carrara suddenly opened my perspective in the line of object/architecture/landscape. It started in reverse from the scale of landscape towards a more pictorial representation of architecture through the image of the tower of Babel (Pieter Brueghel the elder). A great challenge was to use 16mm film as a medium instead of photography; the subject becomes a protagonist in a more natural time/space relationship. M-EK: The proposition you made for the newspaperpublication of the exhibition is an extract of the book Carrara. This edition assembles, sometimes makes a triptych of points of view on the quarry, details or fragments, the photography also exists in an autonomous way. You use various supports to present photography; could you explain how the different supports specifically render your subjects? AK: It is not so much the support, but rather the telescopic manner in which a subject seems to be chased around. From film to book to real space and back, these media generate interesting shifts of perspective that somehow emancipate images into an insisting, but always temporary
thematic.
the films. They are also examples of a reaction against the general tendency of that time towards industrial standardization and
within your explorations of the urban, like in Urban creatures for instance,
Gregos) They are part of your reflection about specific forms of architecture,
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Daniel Gustav Cramer
creek crater In
the north-west
seemed perfect.
In a vast flatland
round, symmetrIcal
caldera.
the wolfe
Untitled (Crater), vido 13'20 en boucle, muet, 2009
37
of australIa
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the Impact occurred

and created an almost
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38 Daniel Gustav Cramer
Interview with DGC: Daniel Gustav Cramer by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
CMdH:
back to that analogy and to the nature of these phenomena, I would like to hear your opinion on Smithson's statements that
both are shot from a helicopter (or a plane) that flies in circles above a vast geological phenomenon. Before coming
It is apparent that your movie Untitled (Crater) shares some resemblance with the first minutes of Robert Smithson's movie Spiral Jetty:
everything about movies and moviemaking is archaic and crude and that one is transported by this Archeozoic medium into the earliest known geological eras? What was your motivation for using video in order to document this landscape?
DGC:
What Smithson said came out of a certain context and time. One can sense this approach unquestionably in his films.
The mood which unfolds in the opening scene of Smithson's movie reminds me on moments of discovery in Tarkovsky's Solaris a camera eye struggling
to capture an alien site (the jetty) against the odds of nature, here the rays and reflection of the glistening sunlight
and the flight speed of the plane. In this sense Untitled (Crater) is quite different. Neither the object, the crater, nor the film as such is what I see central to
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the film. At first, there were two motivations: I wanted to film a crater from above, in a way that the horizon is not i n sight and
ci rcle around it on a precise route, without changing the altitude or distance to its midpoint. I was imagining a landscape image with a fixed
composition yet in which every single point would move constantly. At the same time, the video would in a sense be an evidence of an infinite line drawn
flatland and created an almost round, symmetrical caldera. CMdH: There seems to be a very defined methodology that structures the conception of your work; but suddenly, within this rigorous grid, emerges the softer substances
of storytelling. Whether these stories are told with text or through images or objects, it feels like we are all at once entering the intimacy of a thought or the mysteries of unspeakable sensations. Most of the time these experiences end in secret diaries, but you take them to the outer world, together with the medium that support them. All these fragments tell the story of a whole. Could you explain to us what is at stake in this sequence of fragments, this collection of stories? DGC: In the process of making a work there is a time in which I am concentrating on erasing the indications of the process itself. This brings
in space by the plane itself, defined by a few simple parameters. The Wolfe Creek Crater in the North-West of Australia seemed perfect. The impact occurred in a vast
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about a certain muteness to the work's appearance and physical presence. That blandness does not alter or influence what I would describe its centre - it is more that the tissue around this centre is decreasing and becoming more translucent. In this modification the works' borders soften, they seem to achieve a quality in which they can touch
another. In an exhibition, a group of works comes together and generates a scene, an image reflecting a certain mood and atmosphere. The works shape a web of moments and connections which affect and influence each other; their characteristics -position, color, structure, size - form and direct the narrative and
unfold other layers of echoes and overlaps. In these settings I am treating the individual works, a text, a group of objects, a framed image or sound as equal elements, and test their potential to connect in the installation of the exhibition.

Gerry Laddington
ll a of these
yodelIng, they all
Blue Yodel #4 De gauche droite: Gadji Beri Bimba, Bel Au Hau, Zang Tumb Tumb Photographies cyanotype, 20x20cm (encadres: 50x50cm), 2012
39
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dU
sound poetry,
are examples
gressIng ( s oppoa
Itself they are nega.
thIngs, scattIng,
27 of culture transsed to progressIng

or regressIng )
tIons of the hIgh
amorphous ().
order of the lInguIstIc

In favor of somethIng more
40 Gerry Laddington
Interview with GL: Gerry Laddington by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas

CMdH:
entitled with the first line of a dada poem. We know Dada to be more directly linked to Jazz music than to country music, in esmated, let's only mention the warning the American critic Edmund Wilson addressed to the
sician Jimmie Rodgers. In your Blue Yodel #4, each of the three cyanotype photographs depicting a piece of rock is
The Blue Yodel series you undertook a while ago is a direct reference to the eponymous songs by country mu-
sence as in time; even if the relationship of Jazz and Dada has never been totally consum-
French Dadaists in 1922 in his now famous Vanity Fair article The Aesthetic Upheaval in France:
And do not try to be too barbarous, it is impossible for you to succeed. Maybe we could go back to the
origin of the Blue Yodel series and talk about some of the links you are building between music, poetry, geology,
GL:
art history? Jimmie Rodgers titled the series of songs (the Blue Yodels #'s 113) in a very odd way. He could have chosen to do it the usual
way, use a lyric from the song, but instead he chose to classify them all by number, sequentially. That was quite an anachronistic
act, and also somehow anti-genre too. No-one in his field was doing anything like that. It finds parallel with the classical composers (7th Symrunning through the series of songs that made him feel like they should be grouped together within the context of his oeuvre and considered as a whole.
It later struck me that it also finds accord outside of music. Blue Yodel #3 could quite easily be a Yves Klein title, or a Donald Judd... it is with the minimalists that I think this system finds most parallel. And then there is the inherent contradiction in this titling system. It's so logical, rational and cold, yet the songs are emotional, romantic and sentimental. The titles seem to go against their own content. It seems strange that Rodgers would evade that sentiment with the numerical system he chose, yet he did. This contradiction is interesting to me and CMdH: I like that dynamic when two or more contraoften returns in my work. They are two poles dictory elements confront each other: like words in a way that have historically never sat well for example (cadavre exquis), or images (Hantogether... you just have to look at the 60s and nah Hch's collages), or words with images (Mathe two prevalent art movements of the time, Minimalism and Abstract-Expressionism. Anyway, in a way... this classification system Jimmie Rodgers decided to use, and all the implications, contradictions and historical parallels it generates is a kind of cipher, a way for me to explore and analyze certain subjects that interest me in relation to the conceptual core of the project. It is a kind if investigation, however nebulous and continually shifting that investigation may be. The geological thing is a bit more difficult to explain... rocks are kind of dumb, or perceived to be anyway. They are pure time, anti-human, anti-language maybe.
gritte's paintings). Like I mentioned in my first question, in Blue Yodel # 4 geology and Dada are brought together in some kind of odd and timeless ritual. But that is not the first time you use stones and words. In Jazz Cube, one of your latest work, a piece of black granite is placed upon a speaker from where we can hear scats in jazz style. Maybe you could talk a bit further about yours fascinations for scat singing and Dada poetry and how you bring them in relation to minerals? GL: My interest in both scat singing and Dada sound poetry comes from the fact that they are both nonlinguistic forms of verbal communication. I forgot to mention this before, but the reason the Blue Yodel's
phony, Violin Concerto #5 for example) but not with the popular music of the time. It also implies that he felt there was some kind of collective sentiment
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of Jimmie Rodgers are so called, is that they all feature a vocal technique that he is believed to have pioneered at least in Country music whereby he would make a tuneful high pitched moaning sound it is talked of as emulating the lonesome sound of a train whistle' it is very emotive. The technique is quite clearly based on European folk-yodeling, which itself is believed to have originated in Switzerland as form of communication used between herders and shepherds of the Alpine villages. It wasn't until I started to think about scatting and sound poetry, about a year after I started the Blue Yodel project, that I realized that my interest in these things all come from the same place.
All of these things, scatting, sound poetry, yodeling, they all are examples of culture transgressing (as opposed to progressing' or regressing') itself. They are negations of the high order' of the linguistic in favor of something more amorphous...even primal perhaps... and therefore much more open in terms of potential meaning due to the fact that they are not hindered by predefined definitions in the way that words are. The natural materials I use in my work are kind of opposite to this. They are usually very precisely shaped stones, highly geometric (or of nascent geometry), and in this way are an example of a becoming order. In the example of Jazz Cube, the
granite block is intended to sit in counterpoint to the scatting, harmonically aligned yet with its frequencies inverted.

Pascal Schwaighofer
Mythological Reenactment (Vol. 1), peau de boeuf, bois, corde, dimensions variables, production pour IAPWD 2012
41
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de remplIr ce vIde ,
hIstorIque, et de dcouper
la peau comme on l auraIt faIt '
Il y a 2300 ans
a J' I plutt choIsI

possIble d'une fIdlIt
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m' pprocher le plus a
en cherchant

Quels sont les lments du texte Which elements of the introduction d'introduction/bote outil qui t'ont text/toolbox did you use and how did guids, et comment as-tu abouti cette your reflection find this specific form?
VF: VF: PS: PS:
42 Interview avec PS: Pascal Schwaighofer par VF: Vianney Fivel
Interview with PS: Pascal Schwaighofer by VF: Vianney Fivel
avec les calcologues Marquita et Serge Volken for my exhibition at the Muse Volken, lors de mon exposition au Muse de la Chaussure (Museum of Shoes) in de la chaussure Lausanne. Lausanne. Ce qui m'avait impressionn alors, c'tait What made an impression on me during this
forme spcifique? The work realized for In Absent Le travail conu pour In Absent Places Places We Dwell is an idea that began We Dwell a commenc germer dans to germinate last winter, when I worked mon esprit l'hiver dernier en travaillant with shoe historians Marquita and Serge
un outil rudimentaire utilis pour obtenir, period was a very simple tool which was used partir d'un morceau de cuir, un immense lacet. to obtain, from one single piece of leather, a Or la dcoupe du cuir est galement au cur de very long lace that measured meters and mela lgende de la princesse Didon soit comment ters long. ce personnage historique a pu fonder une cit-tat This method of cutting leather is also the turen inscrivant son territoire l'intrieur d'une longue ning point around which the historical myth of lanire de cuir, dcoupe dans la peau d'un seul buf. Princess Dido is based. This historic character La fondation de Carthage est probablement l'une des premires enclaves historiques. On pourrait la rattacher founded a City State by inscribing a territory of au concept gnral d'tat d'exception qui, pour simpli- land inside of one long leather lace, which was cut fier, renvoie la notion d'espace symbolique de l'art. Ce from one single cow hide. travail conciderait a fortiori avec l'ouverture du nouvel espace When I was invited to participate in this exhibition d'exposition de Piano Nobile. In Absent Places We Dwell, I thought of the story of
Mais la raison dcisive qui m'a conduit raliser cette oeuvre tient Princess Dido. la reconstitution d'un mythe dune histoire qui na probablement
jamais eu lieu, donc l'opportunit de remplir un certain vide Il est vrai qu'une lgende reprsente, ou rend tangible, par la narration,
un vnement historique dont on ne connat pas les vraies causes ni les circonstances exactes. Mais en mme temps c'est exactement la mme narration qui prserve le fait l'intrieur d'une bulle d'abstraction. Toute cette histoire reste inscrite dans les limbes.
Tu as choisi de rejouer le mythe de Didon en te rendant chez un tanneur. Peux-tu parler de cette exprience archaque, du besoin d'utiliser ces techniques, ces matriaux? PS: Comme pour la plupart des mes travaux, le besoin d'employer une technique spcifique est
VF:
Et ce n'est peut-tre pas un hasard si le mythe de Didon est aussi prsent dans la gomtrie euclidienne, connu en tant que Problme de Didon
thermore, this exhibition happens to be the inaugural opening of Piano Nobile's new exhibition space. But the decisive reason which convinced me to realize this artwork
concept of a state of exception, and which, simply put, could adhere to the notion of the symbolic space of art. Fur-
The founding of Carthage is probably one of the first enclaves in history and can be inscribed within the general
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was the opportunity for a historic reconstitution of the myth, of a story which probably never had a proper place, and thus there was an
opportunity to fill a certain void It is true that a historic myth represents, or renders tangible through narration, a historic event whose causes or circumstances are not truly known.
strictement dict par l'uvre mme. Donc je ne peux pas dire que j'ai choisi une technique. J'ai plutt choisi de remplir ce vide dont je vous ai parl, en cherchant m'approcher le plus possible d'une fidlit historique, et de dcouper
la peau comme on l'aurait fait il y a 2 300 ans Cela revient presque penser comme un archologue. D'un autre cot, c'tait un peu comme vrifier la validit d'une hypothse mathmatique, d'une formule ou d'une thse; il y a des informations donnes par
But at the same time, it is exactly the same story which preserves a bubble of abstraction within its interior. The entire history remains inscribed within a
certain limb. Thus, it is not by chance that the myth of Dido is also present in the realm of Euclidian geometry, known through the definition of Dido's Problem
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le mythe, des suppositions abstraites, enfin des conditions matrielles auxquelles on ne peut pas chapper. Je constate dans tout cela une tentative de rappropriation de l'exprience qu'on avait libre de ses contraintes matrielles (gomtrie euclidienne). La
pense a toujours reprsent un espace sans limites. Si on peut parler d'exprience archaque, cela s'app l i q u e s a n s d o u t e l a c ap a c i t d e p en s e r l ' e s p a c e e t l a forme. Voil o il me semble reconnatre les racines communes de la pense pragmatique, gomtrique et politique.
You have chosen to reenact the myth of Dido and to actually visit a tannery. Could you please speak of this archaic experience, and of the need for you to utilize these techniques and materials? PS: As with the majority of my work, the
VF:
need to use a specific technique is strictly dictated by the work itself. Therefore I cannot really say that I chose the technique. I would say that I chose to fill this void, the one I just explained, while searching to become as close as possible to historic fidelity and to
cut the hide as they must have done 2300 years ago It is almost close to thinking like an archaeologist. On the other hand, it was a bit like verifying the validity of a mathematical hypothesis or formula or thesis; there is the information given by the myth,
the abstract suppositions and finally the material conditions which I could not avoid. With all of this, I noticed a tentative of reappropriation of the experience which was liberated from these material constraints (Euclidian geometry). Thought
has always represented space without limits. If we are speaking of an archaic experience, we can surely connect this to the capacity to think of space and form. It is here where I believe that one can get to understand our common roots of practical, geometric and
political thought.

Susanne Kriemann
Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory (Prologue), 8 c-prints, encadrs, 23,5 x 36 cm, dition de 6, 1 AP 2009 ,
43
a n essentIal
leakage poInt
the present.
part of the (or search

Is fIndIng a
) research
21 from the past Into

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of workIng an artIstIc
I consIder thIs way
somehow performatIve
practIce that Is
gIven materIals and
hIstorIcal context.
In Its approach to
44 Susanne Kriemann
series of old and new photographic artefacts, which confound the past with the present. (Bedouins) are reproductions of
Agatha Christies pictures in both colour and black and white. (Tell) (Tell means in this case the mound formed by the remains of
Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory (Prologue), is part of the larger series under the same title (200910), which includes six subM-EK:
Interview with SK: Susanne Kriemann by M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
ancient settlements) includes aerial shots of Mesopotamian excavation sites, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1930s. (Graves)
and (Air) are colour images of archaeological and military sites in the desert, which Kriemann photographed in Syria from the ground and from
inside a plane respectively. (Baghdad Street) features her black and white photographs of Modernist apartment blocks built in the 1930s on the street of
that name, in the Syrian capital Damascus. (I quote Jennifer Allen in an article of Frieze magazine summarizing the composition of the series). Prologue is a photo-
graphic work of compositions-constructions made out of a worn-out hardcover copy of the archaeologist Leonard Woolley's study Digging up the Past (1930).
The imbrications of different sources, Agatha Christiess photographs made for the English government (documenting the excavations of her husband Max Mallowan, an archeologist himself ex-student of
Leonard Woolley and giving her some settings ideas for her future novels), other found images, archives,
mixed with contemporary views and problematic; all this seems to be characteristic of your way of working: this
constant rewriting of history (by juxtaposing different historical layers for example), this frantic digging and collecting,
sert as a system of preservation. I transferred it to a different system of preservation like the photograph or the book. In his introductory essay in Digging up the Past, Leonard Woolley writes: The surprise which a visitor to a Museum expresses at the age of a given object is in exact proportion to his recognition of the object's essential modernity it is the surprise of one who sees his horizon suddenly opening out [].1 I liked the idea that archaeologists excavate in order to re-assure themselves. We live in the most modern of times and this time has existed for thousands of years. And what came before is a continuity of modern humanity. I was looking for photographers, who took pictures in/of the desert and with whom I could have a kind of conversation about these times, and I came upon Agatha Christie (1890 1976). We know her from her famous detective stories, but she was also a photographer for the British Museum in London. Her husband, Sir Max Mallowan (1904 1978), was an archaeologist. She was an adept photographer in difficult conditions: inserting film into the camera and developing it in a tent at high temperatures. She experimented with colour photography and, in the 1950s, with colour films; in addition to documenting pottery and excavation
can somehow also be compared with intertextuality. SK: In Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory I worked with the idea of the de- I flew to Syria and visited the excavation sites
sites, she also made a series of portraits of the Bedouins in Syria. In her photographs of the Bedouins, Agatha Christie demonstrated the relationship between nature, people and photography. The pictures preserve a way of looking through the camera, with distance, with astonishment; the other is the subject. Everything is viewed with modern distance through the camera, through the pen.
move from one system of preservation to another. What does preservation mean or the death of the object caused by taking a photograph? M-EK: These points lead to the issue of reading, which is very present in your approach; a book has been published by Sternberg Press on the subject, Reading Susanne Kriemann (2011); reading the medium of photography itself, archives, texts, from which you re-compose your images. In (Prologue), you focus on the book as an element of edification, also as a kind of mise en abyme of an archeological, scientific object (with a measurement scale). I would like to quote two texts, one by Jennifer Allen (Frieze) and the other by Dieter Roelstraete (The Preserve of the Eye, 2011): Kriemanns goal is not to save dying technologies but rather to bring life to the flat world of pictures and printed pages. An element of the past lying dormant in photographs, books, archives or museum collections is revived as a more palpable three-dimensional experience for us as viewers. Kriemann belongs to a generation of artists whose investment in the notion of artistic research has redefined the historiographic character of much documentary-styled practice. Along with these quotes, I would like you to comment on the importance of books, archives, research and the notion of reading in its broadest sense in your work?
An essential part of the search (or research) is finding a leakage point from the past into the present. I consider this way of working an artistic practice that is somehow performative in its approach to given materials and historical context. This performative quality of research is not choreographed; it grows out of encounters and conversations with people and changes depending on a specific time and place. This is why travel, for example, gives you a particularly clear perspective on things, and for me it offers highly efficient working conditions for collecting and detecting work.
SK:
there where Sir Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie worked in the 1930s and 1950s. We were detained there for three days by the Syrian secret police because we were showing a conspicuous interest in sites where there was nothing special to see or document. That was very interesting. Later I flew to London and met John Mallowan, the nephew of Max Mallowan. He owns the entire Agatha Christie photographic archive and kindly let me use part of it. I am interested in stories from the past that collide with my present thoughts; that is what inspires me to create a new piece. What fascinates me is the dialogue between the Now and what has gone before, events that have already gone down in history. I am looking for very specific pictures in archives and in doing so, I find others that open up new perspectives. Then I produce pictures myself, that, for their part, also enter into a dialogue with the found pictures and with the places where these were taken. A new structure is created from these connections. In Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory, urban spaces of the past sink into the desert and are dug up by archaeologists in the 20th century only to be transferred into another Traveling inspired me to work with and on books. I system of preservation: into the museum and into first began to make small books featuring my phophotography. The leftovers of lost, urban spaces tographs, in order to be able to take them with me
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wherever I went. These self-made books then took on a life of their own that was more interesting than what they documented. The books are closely related to my photographs. Usually I find the initial image for a good idea in books. In attempting to formulate my narratives with all the images taken from other contexts, the clear structure of the book serves as a basis for the associative relationships inherent to my work. Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory is a special example in this regard. Here there is a striking difference between the formulation of the work in book form and its realization in the exhibition context. The latter is a transcription of sorts, which is an act of transposing the book into the exhibition space. Often, when I look at histories in a museum, then the labeling of the object dictates how I read it; imagine the very same object standing in my studio, then it could be eventually viewed as a utilitarian object. Like Woolley's book in the prologue series; in my studio the book is a part of my research, it has been consulted thousand times and therefore has lost its cover. In the photograph, the book can't be read. It is a book, and it has been unbound from its cover and composed and conserved. In describing this book, my gaze falls yet on another book, by Getrude Bell, Ich war eine Tochter Arabiens2,
a publication of letters to her family. At the moment I am intensely interested in the concept of transcription. Gertrud Bell's letters have been compiled into a book. They compose a story of a particular period in the modern era of Iraq and northern Syria. Today the book has global significance. However, the letters were written with a different motivation. How can the idea of transcription be understood when using archival images and transplanting them into different contexts, into the present? What I primarily mean by that is a shift in conditions within a single work.

1 2
Sir Leonard Woolley. Digging up the Past. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931. Gertrude Bell. Ich war eine Tochter Arabiens, Dritte Auflage 1994, copyright 1993 Scherz Verlag Bern, Mnchen, Wien
Camille Vanoye
Everest par l..., dition de 50 livres, production pour IAPWD 2012
45
parle de mon21 tage on pense

dU septem bre aU
quand on
d' bord au cInma et a

quI exIstaffavre de lontcgenma est dJ e ant e I aI m a .
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pour moI la lIttrature

46 Interview avec CV: Camille Vanoye par CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
CMdH:
We Dwell tu as dcid de terminer un travail We Dwell, you have decided to finish a work of
photographie que du cinma.
Pour l'exposition In Absent Places For the exhibition In Absent Places

CMdH:
Interview with CV: Camille Vanoye by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
d ' c r i t ur e entam il y a dj plusieurs mois, qui constitue w r i t i n g t h a t w a s l e f t h a l f - f i n i s h e d f o r a f e w m o n t h s . T h i s w o r k

la somme de nombreuses recherches tant dans le champ de la littrature, de la constitutes a body of research around a selection of literature, photography and cinema.
It is not out of the ordinary for you, as video is the principal medium in which you work; having said this, I would like to hear more about the relationships you have created between video and writing, and in particular in relation to montage (as a technique and the fabrication of a narrative). It is nice to imagine that the narrative of your work Everest: Par l seems itself linked as much to the cinematographic than to the literary. CV: Everest: Par l is my first work of writing. If we can speak of it truly as writing. In general, my work presents images that I collect. It is through this operation of montage that I see writing as a part of the work. Montage, for me, corresponds to the ultimate stage of a process, that in which the work takes its final form. It is a way to show that a work is not simply a recording or a copy of reality, but a composition or a recomposition. This same idea remains true for Everest: Par l but this time, I collected texts. I believe that montage itself is inscribed within writing before being within shots or images. When we speak of montage, we think first of cinema, but for me, literature (which existed before cinema) is already montage. In Tanguy Viel's work Cinma, a novel that presents itself as an inversed adaptation, he transposes images into words, rather than words into images; and thus makes the film a vocal object rather than a filmic object. This produces a metadiscourse which speaks not only of film; it greatens the scope of its proposition to all representative arts, of cinma and literature, and plays on the common ground between these two: fiction, characters, the narrator, destination, plot, spectator and/or reader. Qui diable tes vous donc? So who the hell are you? The idea of film as a vocal object seems appropriate for me to explain Everest: Par l because the texts here are closer to the state of the image. It is necessary to imagine a structure in which I re-assemble fragments of the textimage, and I montage these together, one with the others. This structure is the narrative, but the narrative cannot be made visible only through the reassembly of text-images. The writing is accomplished within and through the act of montage. My thought process did not follow a linear path but rather followed a combination of unpredictable associations. The process of montage was not conceived in order to produce a linear chain, in which I lay out one text-image after the other. It was rather done to create an imaginary space, or to create a text-image, which eclipses itself under the super-impression of the new text-image. The intertext is probably the most adequate form in which to present Everest: Par l I think of Eisenstein for whom the montage is king. For Eisenstein, the notion of language, in the point of view of syntax, returns writing to the realms of superposition of units or cellules of montage and construction of the image, rather than modes of structure and sequence. In his book Sphere, edited for the International Exhibition of Film and Photography in Stuttgart, August 1929, he reflects on the most appropriate form to present his theory on montage, and he imagines this form to be that of a spherical book: a book-atlas, dynamic and interactive, itself created as a form or display of montage, which allows the reader to considerits essays simultaneously, consultingone after the other and back and forth through continuous returns and with reciprocal integrations, so that even connecting the farthest arguments would have been possible: a direct passage from one to the other right through the center of the sphere. It seems to prove the efficiency of montage as a method that surpasses the limits of narrative cinema. It also necessitates us to see a form of writing and reading, of thought and display specifically through and within montage. The idea to displace montage from the context of narrative film towards other dimensions formed this book-exhibition, capable of inviting the reader to partake in reading as a practice itself of the form of montage. The utopic idea of a spherical book was never yet realized CMdH:Now, I would like to appropriate the question that Barthes asked himself and asks to the readers of his essay Ecrire la lecture (To write reading). Has it ever happened to you, when you are reading a book that you stop incessantly throughout the reading, not because of disinterest, but on the contrary, because of an afflux of ideas, excitations, associations? Basically, you cannot read because your head is afloat? I ask you this question because I know that you are a formidable reader devouring all sorts of books and that you read very actively, that is, while writing. Could you also return to the question on your interest in the writer W.G. Sebald, who was also a gargantuous reader and an amazing writer- editor (revisiting the image of the film as a vocal object)? CV: With Everest: Par l I wanted to treat a frequently utilized theme in classical literature, that in which the characters are on a voyage in search of an ideal world. For this, I chose two works that served as the basic canvas: Le Mont Analogue by Ren Daumal and Dan Yack by Blaise Cendrars. While reading these two books, I found a structure in which I re-assembled these texts and montaged other texts one after the others, associating them to these two texts or other ideas, other images, other significations. There is the idea of a type of reading without an objective or subjective truth but only with a ludic truth (playful truth), where the play is obviously not a distraction but a work: to open up a work. A reading with multiple levels, but without the possibility to describe levels of reading, because there is not the possibility to finish a list of these levels. Obviously, I could not repudiate the existing structure of these two reference texts, and my reading could not be completely free, and thus I could not surpass the structure of the texts, but rather was subjected to their structures, and thus there was a need to be able to pervert these structures. One of the main ideas of Everest: Par l is a refusal to assign an absolute meaning to these texts. This was important, and I put emphasis on the note as an attempt to find meaning within the text. The reader, or the analyst (someone who searches meaning in text) is first of all a reader, and reading is infinite; he does not decode but rather sur-codes. That which I placed in the forefront is the permanent hemorrhage, in which the structure - patiently and usefully described by structural Analysis - collapses, opens, loses and conforms
Ce n'est pas trange du reste puisque la vido constitue le mdium principal avec lequel tu travailles d'habitude. Or, j'aimerais que tu nous parles des rapports de correspondance que tu tablis entre la vido et l'criture, en particulier travers le montage, comme technique de fabrication du rcit. En effet, je me plais imaginer que structurellement ton rcit Everest: Par l relve autant du cinmatographique que du littraire. CV: Everest: Par l est mon premier travail d'criture. Si l'on peut vritablement parler d'criture. En gnral, je travaille plutt monter les images que je collectionne. C'est par l'opration du montage que j'entreprends l'criture d'une uvre. Le montage correspond pour moi l'tape ultime du processus, celle o l'uvre prend sa forme finale. C'est le moyen de montrer que l'uvre n'est pas simple enregistrement ou copie de la ralit mais composition ou recomposition. Ce fut la mme chose pour Everest: Par l, mais cette fois-ci je collectionnais des textes. Je crois d'ailleurs que le montage est dans l'criture avant d'tre dans les plans et les images. Quand on parle de montage on pense d'abord au cinma, et pour moi la littrature qui existe avant le cinma est dj affaire de montage. Tanguy Viel, dans son uvre Cinma, un roman qui se prsente comme une adaptation l'envers, transpose non plus des mots en images mais des images en mots; il fait sur de la pellicule filmique de la pellicule-vocale. Cela produit un mtadiscours qui ne parle plus ds lors seulement du film, mais des arts de la reprsentation, le cinma et la littrature, en jouant sur leur terrain commun: la fiction, les personnages, le narrateur, le destinataire spectateur et/ ou lecteur. Qui diable tes-vous donc?. L'ide de pellicule-vocale me parat approprie pour Everest: Par l, car les textes y sont presque l'tat d'images. Il s'agissait d'imaginer une structure dans laquelle je rassemblerais des fragments de textes-images et les monterais les uns avec les autres. Cette structure c'est le rcit, mais le rcit ne peut tre visible que par le rassemblement des textes-images. L'criture s'est faite dans et par le montage. Ma pense n'a pas suivi un schma linaire mais davantage une combinaison imprvisible d'associations. Le montage n'tait pas conu pour produire une chane continue, dans laquelle j'enchsserais un texte-image la suite d'un autre. Il tait plutt l pour crer un espace imaginaire, o un texte-image s'clipse avec la surimpression d'un autre. L'intertexte est probablement la forme la plus adquate sous laquelle prsenter Everest: Par l. Je pense Eisenstein pour qui le montage est roi. La notion de langage, voire de syntaxe, chez Eisenstein, renvoie en effet aux concepts de structure et d'enchanement, entendus comme modes de superposition des units ou cellules de montage et construction de l'image. Dans son livre intitul Sphre et dit pour l'exposition internationale Film und Foto de Stuttgart, en aot 1929, le cinaste rflchit la forme adapte pour prsenter sa thorie du montage. Or il imagine la trouver dans un livre en forme de sphre: un livre-atlas, dynamique et interactif, lui-mme conu comme dispositif de montage, qui aurait d permettre au lecteur de considrer les essais qui le composaient tout ensemble simultanment, en passant de l'un l'autre en avant et en arrire, travers des renvois continus et des intgrations rciproques, de manire ce que mme entre les arguments les plus loigns et t possible un passage direct de l'un l'autre travers le centre de la sphre. Il s'agissait de mettre l'preuve l'efficacit du montage bien au-del des limites du cinma narratif. Il s'agissait de voir, dans le montage, un dispositif d'criture et de lecture, de pense et d'exposition. De le dplacer du contexte du film narratif vers d'autres dimensions, celle d'une forme-livre qui visait se donner une nouvelle prsence dans l'espace, devenant un livre-exposition capable d'inviter le lecteur pratiquer lui-mme une forme de montage. L'ide utopique d'un livre sphrique n'a jamais t ralise CMdH: J'aimerais ici m'approprier la question que Barthes se pose et pose aux lecteurs de son essai crire la lecture: Ne vous est-il jamais arriv, lisant un livre, de vous arrter sans cesse dans votre lecture, non par dsintrt, mais au contraire par afflux d'ides, d'excitations, d'associations? En un mot, ne vous est-il pas arriv de lire en levant la tte? Cette interrogation t'est destine parce que je sais que tu es une lectrice formidable qui dvore avidement toutes sortes de livres, et que tu lis activement, c'est--dire tout en crivant. Pourrais-tu aussi revenir par la mme occasion sur ton intrt pour l'crivain W. G. Sebald, lui aussi un lecteur gargantuesque et un crivain-monteur gnial (si on reprend l'image de pellicule-vocale)?
CV: Avec Everest par l, je dsirais traiter d'un thme utilis de faon rcurrente dans la littrature classique, celui du rcit de voyage, dans lequel les personnages sont en qute d'un monde idal. Pour cela j'ai choisi deux uvres qui allaient me servir de toile de fond: Le Mont Analogue de Ren Daumal et Dan Yack de Blaise Cendrars. C'est partir de leur lecture que s'est labore la structure dans laquelle j'allais rassembler les textes et les monter les uns avec les autres, associant aux textes originaux d'autres ides, d'autres images, d'autres significations. Il y a cette ide d'une lecture qui n'a pas de vrit objective ou subjective mais seulement une vrit ludique, o le jeu n'est videmment pas une distraction mais un travail: ouvrir le texte. Une lecture multiples niveaux, mais sans la possibilit de dcrire les niveaux de lecture, parce qu'il n'y a pas la possibilit de clore la liste de ces niveaux. Bien sr, je ne pouvais pas nier la structure existante des oeuvres de rfrence, ma lecture ne pouvait tre totalement libre, elle tait soumise leur structure, elle en avait besoin mais elle a tent de les pervertir. Ainsi une des ides de Everest par l est le refus d'assigner au texte un sens ultime. J'ai mis en avant la note, c'est--dire l'acte de trouver du sens au texte. Le lecteur, puisque l'analyste celui qui cherche un sens au texte est d'abord un lecteur, accumule les dcodages, la lecture tant infinie, il ne dcode pas il surcode. Ce que je prne c'est une hmorragie permanente, par o la structure patiemment et utilement dcrite par l'Analyse structurale s'croulerait, s'ouvrirait, se perdrait, conforme en cela tout systme logique qu'en dfinitive rien ne peut fermer laissant intact ce qu'il faut bien appeler le mouvement du sujet et de l'histoire: la lecture, ce serait l o la structure s'affole, comme le prcise Barthes dans S/Z. Ainsi montrer que le texte n'est pas une ligne de mots, dgageant un sens unique (thologique: le message de l'Auteur-dieu) mais un espace dimensions multiples o se marient et se contestent des critures varies, dont aucune n'est originelle le texte est un tissu de citations. L'crivain ne peut qu'imiter un texte toujours antrieur lui, jamais originel: Son seul pouvoir est de mler les critures, de les contrarier les unes par les autres, de faon ne jamais prendre appui sur l'une d'elles; voudrait-il s'exprimer, du moins devrait-il savoir que la chose intrieure qu'il a la prtention de traduire, n'est elle-mme qu'un dictionnaire tout compos, dont les mots ne peuvent s'expliquer qu' travers d'autres mots, et ceci indfiniment [...] succdant l'Auteur, le scripteur n'a plus en lui passions, humeurs, sentiments, impressions, mais cet immense dictionnaire o il puise une criture qui ne peut connatre aucun arrt: la vie ne fait jamais qu'imiter le livre, et ce livre lui-mme n'est qu'un tissu de signes, imitation perdue, infiniment recule. Le lieu o se rassembleraient les critures multiples ne serait pas l'auteur mais le lecteur: Le lecteur est l'espace mme o s'inscrivent, sans qu'aucune ne se perde, toutes les citations dont est faite une criture. J'ai donc mis en avant ce principe de la lecture o la naissance du lecteur doit se payer de la mort de l'Auteur. On pourrait dire que Sebald est un auteur qui lit activement, c'est dire tout en crivant. Dans Les Anneaux de Saturne on retrouve ce que dit Barthes propos de lire en levant la tte. Sebald est dj celui qui lit: En aot 1992, comme les journes du Chien approchaient de leur terme, je me mis en route pour un voyage pied dans l'est de l'Angleterre, travers le comt de Suffolk, esprant parvenir ainsi me soustraire au vide qui grandissait en moi l'issue d'un travail assez absorbant. La marche serait la structure, la lecture, c'est en marchant, en crivant, en lisant que le texte se construit. La marche comme mtaphore de l'criture. Les digressions historiques sont simultanes de la narration du parcours gographique. Pour Sebald le travail de l'imagination n'est pas une fiction mais cette facult qui nourrit chez Baudelaire la thorie des correspondances, car elle peroit, selon lui, tout d'abord, en dehors des mthodes philosophiques, les rapports intimes et secrets des choses, les correspondances et les analogies. C'est grce au montage que Sebald livre une vision du pass qui s'mancipe de la logique chronologique puisque les rcits se construisent par collisions et associations, ou anachronies. Chez l'crivain, le montage procde selon deux modes: le montage par dissemblances, construisant un catalogue de bric--brac, et le montage par ressemblances, favorisant les analogies. Sebald est un collectionneur mticuleux du document d'archives, le montage vritable part du document. Il est proche de la mthode prconise par Walter Benjamin: en sortant les images de leur contexte, en les isolant, en les recadrant, il est possible de faire merger entre elles d'autres rapports, de dynamiter le cours de l'histoire. Barthes dit aussi que le texte seul a n'existe pas: il y a immdiatement dans cette nouvelle, ce roman, ce pome que je lis, un supplment de sens, dont ni le dictionnaire ni la grammaire ne peuvent rendre compte. Dans Les Anneaux de Saturne, Sebald est la fois l'crivain et le lecteur. Comme la lecture qu'voque Barthes, l'criture chez Sebald est aussi irrespectueuse, elle coupe le texte mais en mme temps y revient sans cesse pour s'en nourrir. Sebald, coupeur ou monteur, utilise des documents (dcouverts dans les archives ou produits par lui) dans sa prose qui relvent soit du rcit du pass, soit du rcit de l'enqute sur ce dernier, les rcits articulant toujours deux niveaux narratifs. Ainsi sa lecture devient son tour l'objet d'une nouvelle lecture. La lecture est donc double car le lecteur lui mme va couper le texte une seconde fois. Il y aura donc double coupure du texte. A l'intrieur de ` ces digressions, de cette dispersion Sebald compose. Les coupures sont elles aussi des textes, les textes qu'il a pu crire dans sa tte en lisant son propre texte, le texte d'un texte-lecture. Il nous invite donc une double lecture en levant la tte. En 1983 dans Le travail de Flaubert, Foucault dit: Pour rver il ne faut pas fermer les yeux, il faut lire. L'imaginaire ne se constitue pas contre le rel pour le nier ou le compenser; il s'tend entre les signes, de livre livre, dans l'interstice des redites et des commentaires; il nat et se forme dans l'entre-deux des textes.
itself in a logical system where nothing definitively can be closed - leaving intact what could be called the movement of the subject and history: reading is where the structure is panics as Barthes says in S/Z. So to show that text is not simply a line of words, giving off one unique meaning (theology: the message of the Author-God) but a space with multiple dimensions, where various writings are embraced and contested, where nothing is original: the text is a fabric of citations. The writer cannot do much more than imitate a text always anterior to him or herself, never original: his only power is to combine writings, to constrain these one at a time, in a form never taken by one of the previous; what he wishes to express, at least what he must know is that the interior thing pretending to translate, is just a dictionary already composed, with words only explaining themselves through other words indefinitelysucceeding to the Author, the writer has no passions, no humors, no sentiments or impressions, but only this immense dictionary in which he takes a writing that knows no end: life never stops imitating the book, and books themselves are nothing more than a fabric of signs, lost imitations, infinitely remote. The place where multiple writings re-assemble themselves is not with the author, but rather with the reader: the reader is the space itself where writing is, without anything lost, and all of the citations comprise writing. I therefore find it important to place this principle of the reader where the birth of the reader must actually be the death of the Author. One could say that Sebald is an author who writes actively, that is to say, while writing. In Les Anneaux de Saturne, we find that moment which Barthes explains as the sensation of reading and having ones head in afloat. Sebald is already somebody who reads: In August 1992, as the dog days were coming to an end, I started a trip on foot in East Britain, through the Suffolk county, hoping to find a way to escape from a void which was becoming larger in me because of a rather absorbing piece of work. The walk is the structure, the reading, it is during walking that one is writing, and it is while reading that the text is being constructed. The walk serves as the metaphor of writing. The walk becomes a metaphor of writing. Historic digressions are simultaneously part of the narration and also part of a geographic path. For Sebald, the work of the imagination is not a fiction but the ability that provides Baudelaire with the theory of correspondences because it perceives outside of philosophical methods, intimate and secret relationships between things, and their correspondences and analogies. It is thanks to montage, that Sebald engages a past vision, which is emancipated from a chronological logic due to a narrative constructed through collisions and associations, or anachronies. For Sebald, montage is carried out in two modes: montage through dissimilarities, constructing a bric-a-brac catalog, and montage through resemblances, preferring analogies. Sebald is a meticulous collector of archival documents, the montage departs from the document. His chosen method is close to that which is advocated by Walter Benjamin: to remove images from their context, by isolating and reframing them, it is possible to make other relationships emerge between them, to destroy the course of history. Barthes has also said that the text alone does not exist: there is immediately within this novella, this novel, this poem that I read, another supplementary sensation, that neither the dictionary nor grammar can render comprehensible. In Les Anneaux de Saturne, Sebald is at times the writer and at times the reader. As the reading evoked by Barthes, writing for Sebald is also disrespectful in that it cuts the text but at the same time returns to it incessantly to nourish itself. Sebald as the cutter or the editor utilizes these documents (found within archives or created by himself) within his prose which relates to past narratives, or to narratives which investigate the former, and the narratives always articulate these two levels. Or their reading also becomes the subject of a new reading. The reading thus is doubled because the reader himself will cut or edit the text a second time. Thus, there is a double edit or cut within the text. Sebald composes a dispersion in the interior of these digressions. The cuts are also texts, texts which can be written in the mind while reading his actual text, the text of the reading-text. He invites us, therefore, to a double reading, while the head is afloat. In 1983 within Le travail de Flaubert (The Work of Flaubert), Foucault said To dream, one must not close ones eyes but one must read. The imaginary is not made against the real to negate it or to compensate for it; it extends itself between the signs, from book to book, within the interstices of the reminders and the commentaries; it births and forms itself within the in-between of texts.
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Odilon Pain
1 Uncanny, pltre, cheveux synthtiques, production pour IAPWD 2012 2 1982, A Pigeon Solves the Classic Box-and-Banana Problem, huile sur toile, 79,5 x 94 cm, 2011 3 14 mars 2012 (tude), huile sur toile, 65 x 50,5 cm, 2012 4 Conceal copy (Barnett Newman Chartres, 1969), peinture murale, 305 x 289.5 cm, production pour IAPWD 2012
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J'essaIe de travaIller sur des questIons
tager des exprIences quI n'ont

de temporalIt,montrer des choses quI ne sont plus, parplus lIeu et en prsenter le rsultat entre perte et reun perptuel Intervalle car Il
quI le constItuent. un espace se Juxtapose un autre.
cratIon.le travaIl s' ccomplIt dans a

Interroge ses propres lImItes et celles
Votre dmarche vise fabriquer In an interview of yours as well un environnement factice, attein- as in another text, you speak of fadre un paysage qui fait paysage bricating an artificial environment
M-EK: M-EK:
48 Interview avec OP: Odilon Pain par M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
Interview with OP: Odilon Pain by M-EK: Marie-Eve Knoerle
ou un paysage qui sous-entend un to obtain a landscape, which makes paysage1, partir d'objets et de mat- landscape or a landscape which hints riaux communs dits pauvres. Sur la a landscape1, that is based on objects
base de quelques-unes de vos peintures (mu- and materials that we generally regard as rales), installations, sculptures et vidos, low. Based on some of your paintings j'ai l'impression que cette notion de paysage (murals), installations, sculptures and vis'tend de manire plus gnrale un regard, deos, I have the impression that this notion subjectif, pos sur les objets qui vous entourent of landscape extends in a more general way to quotidiennement, avec parfois des lments qui a subjective point of view placed on these objects
utilisation du paysage? mountains, a pine forest, etc. Could you tell us more Dans la recherche pratique, il s'agit du paysage en tant about this usage of landscape? que contexte autant qu'lment auquel je me rfre, c'est-- In my studio research, the landscape is a context or eleOP:
surgissent, appartenant un paysage naturel, tels that surround you on a daily basis, with elements que la surface de la terre, l'le, la montagne, la fort that appear at times, as though in a natural landsde pins, etc. Pouvez-vous nous en dire plus sur cette cape, such as the surface of the earth, an island,
OP:
dire un paysage que je conois comme surface, comme espace ment that I refer to; that is, I imagine the landscape as a limit, dans ou hors de sa limite, un paysage que je pratique. Crer surface, as a limited space, either within or outside of its limit,
et d'existence. A la lecture du texte d'introduction de In Absent Places We works, their conditions of appearance and existence. At the reading of ` Dwell, j'ai tout de suite pens une phrase de Werner Heisenberg: S'il est the introductory proposal of the exhibition In Absent Places We Dwell, I
plus tout fait clair, et c'est ce qui m'intresse. C'est pourquoi je me rfre au sens large du Paysage, mme si les confusions sont aises. Du paysage, seuls quelques lments communs sa dfinition m'intressent: l'ide de reprsentation l'ide de partie l'ide d'unit ou d'ensemble l'ide de point de vue
et fabriquer s'inscrit moins dans une recherche de nouveaut que dans a landscape that I practice. To create and make is less inscribed le projet d'interroger le statut des uvres, leurs conditions d'apparition in a research of newness than in a way to interrogate the status of
permis de parler de l'image de la nature selon les sciences exactes de notre temps, il immediately thought of a phrase of Werner Heisenberg's: If we are speaking faut entendre par l, plutt que l'image de la nature, l'image de nos rapports la nature.2 of images of nature according to the sciences of our times, it must be understood En cela le terme de regard subjectif n'est
nature.2 Following this idea, the term subjective point of view is not always clear and this is what interests me. This is why I reference myself in a greater sense to the Landscape, even if confusions are bound to ensue. Within this idea of Landscape, only some common elements of its definitions interest me: the idea of representation
the idea of a part the idea of unity or an ensemble the idea of a point of view There are edges, demarcations, and gaps sometimes that are objective, or not. In the act of fabrication, the material plays a central role in the realization of the image, of the produced object. The accumulation of common meaning of materials, support, medium, develop formal
that, rather than being images of nature, the images are about our relationship to
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Il y a des bords, des dmarcations, des carts parfois objectifs ou non. Dans l'acte de fabrication, le matriau joue un rle central la ralisation de l'image, de l'objet produit. L'accumulation des sens communs aux matriaux, supports, mdiums, dveloppe des analogies formelles. Le paysage n'existe pas uniquement en tant que reprsentation mimtique,
mais sous la forme d'un plan d'analogie. C'est une pratique du paysage qui nat d'exprimentations avec la matire, d'oprations alatoires, de la rencontre hasardeuse de facteurs matriels, comme aussi du regard port sur elle3. M-EK: Dans vos recherches artistiques, vous abordez, semble-t-il, l'espace et le lieu d'intervention
d'une manire spcifique: je pense une action qui consistait arpenter une architecture sans poser le pied au sol; galement vos peintures murales, peine perceptibles, qui sont comme une superposition d'un nouvel espace l'existant. Vous parlez galement d'htrotopie, allusion Michel Foucault, pour l'espace dlimit d'une installation qui acquiert
ainsi son propre systme de rfrence. Certaines de vos peintures sont des reprsentations de sculptures positionnes dans un espace. OP: C'est le dbut d'une srie de peintures qui dpeint M-EK: Avec la peinture A Pigeon Solves the Classic Box-andquelques-uns des projets avorts dans mon atelier, des Banana Problem, on se trouve plong dans une exprience ides de sculptures qui n'ont pas rellement pris forme, scientifique, une question de repres spatiaux tests sur un comme d'autres pices rcentes. J'essaie de travailler animal Y a-t-il des liens faire entre ces recherches lies
sur des questions de temporalit, montrer des choses qui ne sont plus, partager des expriences qui n'ont plus lieu, et en prsenter le rsultat entre perte et re-cration. Le travail s'accomplit dans un perptuel intervalle car il interroge ses propres limites et celles qui le constituent. Un espace se juxtapose un autre.
l'espace et la temporalit? OP: A pigeon Solves the Classic Box-and-Banana Problem se base sur une tude de Wolfgang Kholer dmontrant que la rsolution d'un problme n'est pas forcement lie un apprentissage pralable. Me rfrant la vido sur YouTube, j'ai choisi le moment prcis avant que le pigeon ne trouve la solution. Je
analogies. The landscape does not exist only with mimetic representation, but also in the form of analogic plans. It is a landscape practice which arises from experimentations with the material, from aleatory operations, of the chance meetings of material factors, and also the perspective on it.3
In your artistic research, it seems that you approach the space and place of intervention in a very specific manner: I think of an action which constitutes the surveying of architecture without actually putting feet on the ground; equally in your mural paintings, barely perceptible, which are like superimpositions of new spaces in those already exisM-EK:
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perience, a question about spatial markers that were tested on an animal. Are there links to make between these researches? OP: A Pigeon Solves the Classic Box-and-Banana Problem departs from a study by Wolfgang Kholer, which demonstrates that the resolution to a problem is not necessarily linked to preconditioned training. Based on the video on YouTube, I chose the precise moment just before the pigeon finds the solution. I wanted
to make a history painting to underline a messageBetween a desire for liberty and an incapacity to struggle out of the already established forms coming from outside; my pluridisciplinary work results from a practical way of thinking, under construction. The articulated objects are developed in different modalities. Their modes of comprehension depend on the context in which they appear. These
objects oscillate between props and autonomous works, supporting structures or paintings, sculptures. It is a way in which I communicate and interrogate the idea itself of a presupposed history or something that is supposed to come. The works always stay in a state of uncertainty and lose the idea that art must accumulate knowledge or must correspond
to critical models dominated by a pre-established discourse. They change each other and participate in a space that is becoming, to be re-invented, where axes are moving, disappearing while another appear, without a fixed hierarchy.
ting. You also speak of heterotopy, a reference to Michel Foucault, for the delimited space of an installation that acquires its own referential system. Some of your paintings are representations of your sculptures positioned in space. OP: I am beginning a series of paintings, which depict M-EK: About your painting A Pigeon Solves the Classic Boxsome aborted projects in my studio, ideas for sculptures, and-Banana Problem, we find ourselves within a scientific ex-
which did not truly take shape, and some other recent pieces. I try to work on questions of temporality, to show things which are no longer, to show these experiences which no longer have a place and also to present the result voulais en faire une peinture d'histoire comme pour sous-tendre between loss and re-creation. The work is accomplished in un message... Entre un dsir de libert et une incapacit s'ex- a perpetual interval because it interrogates its own limits.
traire des formes tablies, mon travail pluridisciplinaire rsulte One space is juxtaposed to another. d'une pense pratique en construction. Les objets s'articulent et se dveloppent sous diffrentes modalits. Leurs modes de comprhension dpendent du contexte dans lequel ils apparaissent. Ces objets oscillent entre accessoires et uvres autonomes, structure de soutien
ou peintures, sculptures. C'est un moyen par lequel je communique et m'interroge sur l'ide mme d'une histoire prsuppose ou venir. Les uvres restent toujours dans un tat d'incertitude et chappent l'ide que l'art doit accumuler du savoir ou correspondre des modles critiques domins par un discours prtabli. Elles changent, s'changent et
participent un espace en devenir, r-inventer, o les axes se dplacent, disparaissent pendant que d'autres apparaissent, sans hirarchie fixe.

1 2 3
Extraits de textes et interviews de l'artiste Werner Heisenberg, La nature dans la physique contemporaine, Gallimard, Paris, 1962, p. 33-34 Beuys propos de sa sculpture Val. Caroline Tisdall, Joseph Beuys, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1979, figure 100, p. 62
1 2 3
Excerpts of texts and interviews by the artist Werner Heisenberg, La nature dans la physique contemporaine, ditions Gallimard, Paris, 1962, p.33-34 Beuys on his sculpture Val. Caroline Tisdall, Joseph Beuys, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1979, figure 100, p. 62
Florent Meng
conscIence de
une perte, et Je
a J' I bIen
croIs qu'elle
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Images.
Wanderers sculptures n13, dition de 50 livrets, production pour IAPWD 2012
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vIsuellement comme
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50 Interview avec FM: Florent Meng par CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
CMdH:
Ta pratique de photographe est in- Your photographic practice is insedissociable de ta pratique de prome- parable with your practice of strolling neur une association somme toute ( f l n e u r ) - a n a l l i a n c e t h a t i s a c t u a l l y
CMdH:
Interview with FM: Florent Meng by CMdH: Ceel Mogami de Haas
frquente. On connat bien l'affection quite conventional. We know very well du photographe, de l'crivain, de l'cri- that the object of affection of the photovain-photographe pour la marche: elle en- grapher, the writer, the writer-photograph
g e n d r e s o u v e n t d e s i m a g e s e t d e s m o t s , i s t h e w a l k : i t fr eq u e n t l y e n g e n d e r s i m ag es toujours des penses et des images de pen- and words, always thoughts and images of ses. Moins vidente est l'articulation que thoughts. Less evident is the articulation that
you establish between photography, the walk, and tu tablis entre la photographie, la marche et sculpture: three practices which are reunited in your la sculpture: trois pratiques qui se runissent work-in-progress, an artist book which bears the beaudans un travail d'dition in progress qui porte le tiful title Wanderer's Sculptures and which already has trs beau titre de Wanderer's Sculptures, et qui twelve volumes. Thus, for the exhibition In Absent Places compte dj douze volumes. Comme l'occasion We Dwell you produce a thirteenth volume, and I would like t t i i n t de th w a, de l'exposition In Absent Places We Dwell tu pro- bo sreedturntho ttihle ,motcvatldodesvehoat oenntgeennatrure iosf worksasndlpthrets a on e t e we ou l p h these cu u
s'interroge sur la nature de ces sculptures du flneur. J'ai commenc ce travail en 2008, alors que je vivais
FM:
duis le treizime volume, j'aimerais qu'on revienne sur les motivations qui ont engendr ce travail, et qu'on
FM:
the city many hours a day to kill time. I would take a swarm of images of inert
objects while turning around them, so that I could choose later on the best point of view.
of the stroller, or flneur. I started this work in 2008, when I lived in Tokyo. I would walk through
The ensemble or the sequence that resulted m ge , o o r Tokyo. Je marchais dans la ville plusieurs heures par jour par fsrcom ttuhreesehianaphs tsegermphfy.r Ime,ttclmses tto ulp t oo a t a e pt o dsuvrement. Je prenais des images la vole d'objets inertes offer the maximum dimension possible to me i obse v cs en tournant autour pour me laisser une chance de choisir, plus whortaivneraustonomry itnhgr.oMy stubsjemtultaicqiuiire a ce ugh hi pl c ty tard, le meilleur point de vue. of point of views, as though turning around L'ensemble ou la squence qui rsulte de ces images appartient, pour a pedestal or object, and there is always a moi, davantage la sculpture qu' la photographie. Il s'agit d'offrir le respected invisible parameter, an adapted st c ou rs i maximum de dimension possible celui qui regarde. Mes sujets acquirent diheanhienfor thart uIndpehotandang., which seem T t gs togr ph une certaine autonomie travers cette multiplicit de points de vue, comme quand quite different from one another, are not on tourne autour d'un socle ou d'un objet, il y a toujours un primtre invisible que usually the things that take our attention. nous respectons, une distance adapte notre comprhension. They are the things we pass without looking at. Their presence are revealed by a flLes choses que je photographie, en appaneur, whom Benjamin stated as someone who rence trs diffrentes les unes des autres, detaches him/herself from the wheeling and ne retiennent habituellement pas notre atdealing of the cities and is at the same time a tention, elles sont ce devant quoi on passe bit more than an observer. sans le voir. Leur prsence sera rvle My photos result in discoveries, and are, I hope, par un flneur qui, comme le dit Walter Benreconfigurations of space and the perception of jamin, se dtache de l'affairisme des villes et space. I like the expression that Gabriel Oroest plus mme d'observer. zco uses to talk of images that he takes during Mes photos rsultent de trouvailles, et sont, walks; he states that through these photographs je l'espre, des reconfigurations possible de
l'espace et de sa perception. J'aime l'expression qu'utilise Gabriel Orozco propos des images qu'il prend lors de promenades: il dit qu'a travers ces photographies il rordonne furtivement la chance et le chaos. CMdH: Donc il y a une sorte de transfiguration du banal, pour reprendre les termes d'Arthur Danto? Le flneur, un alchimiste en quelque sorte, transforme le banal, cet invisible auquel tu fais
rfrence, en lui (re)donnant une visibilit. Mais c'est l que se profile un problme conceptuel qu'on peut noncer ainsi: une brche se cre entre le banal, qui est ici en jeu, et la forme qui est cense le reprsenter c'est la distance naturelle s'instaurant entre la reprsentation et son objet. Tu risques de perdre travers la restitution du banal ce qui fait sa singularit. Ainsi, comment faire
cohabiter la forme qui transgresse l'ordinaire et un objet qui se dfinit par son caractre ordinaire? FM: Le terme banal est difficile dfinir pour moi, je ne pense pas que mes sujets soient banals... J'envisage la banalit comme une projection, quelque chose qui ne leur appartient pas. Mais tu as raison dans un sens, je pense que la perte d'une singularit est inhrente une restitution,
d'autant plus en passant par la photographie, coince entre la platitude des images commerciales et l'autoritarisme du photojournalisme. J'ai bien conscience de travailler une perte, et je crois qu'elle s'inscrit visuellement comme une certaine mlancolie des choses dans mes images. En fait, rien ne me distingue techniquement du photojournalisme, mais pour moi cet espace invisible compris entre la forme et son objet est intgre. C'est l'affirmation de la modestie du mdium, son impuissance et sa tentative dsespre de vouloir rendre compte qui m'intresse.
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he furtively reorders chance and chaos. CMdH: Therefore, there is a sort of transfiguration of the banal (to take the terms of Arthur Danto)? The flneur, an alchemist of a sort, transforms the banal,this invisible thing that you reference, by giving it a visibility. But this is where a conceptual problem emerges, which we could summarize as such: There is a breach that is created between the banal, which is in play and the form that is sensed to represent it it is the natural distance that is ins-
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tituted between representation and its object. You risk losing, by compensating the banal, that which is its singularity. How can a form, which transgresses the ordinary and an object, which is defined by its ordinary characteristics (the banal) cohabitate? FM: The term banal is difficult to define for me; I don't quite think of my subjects as banalI envision banality as a projection, something that does not apply to them. But what you say is true in one sense; I
think that the loss of singularity is inherent in a restitution, especially when passing through photography, which is trapped in a platitude of commercial images and the authoritarianism of photojournalism. I am consciously working towards a loss, and I believe that it is inscribed visually as a kind of melancholy of things in my images. In fact, there is nothing technically that could distinguish me from photojournalism, but for me, this invisible space comprised between form and object
is understood and integrated. It is the affirmation of the modesty of the medium, its impotence and its desperate attempt to show something that interests me.

Marie Velardi
Je m' ntresse I
Temps de Renouvellement: 70000 ans, Temps de Renouvellement: 20000 ans, aquarelle liquide sur papier, 30.5 x 42,4 cm, production pour IAPWD 2012 51
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des gographIes
autres,souvent
InconscIentes et
pour les condItIons de
vIe la surface de la
et venIr.
des terrI toIre et
rendre vIsIble
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non moIns dtermInantes

terre, prsentes
souterraInes maIs

Comment as tu abord la propo- How did you approach the In Absition de participation In Absent sent Places We Dwell proposal? Sand roses comprises a beautiful Places We Dwell? Les fleurs de sable est une trs belle image. When I read the text propoVF: VF: MV: MV:
52 Interview avec MV: Marie Velardi par VF: Vianney Fivel.
Interview with MV: Marie Velardi by VF: Vianney Fivel.
image. En lisant le texte de prsenta- sition for the exhibition, I was enthution de l'exposition, j'ai t enthousias- siastic about the relationships between me par les liens potentiels avec mon what I read and with a series of drawings
travail issu de cartographies d'eaux sou- I had started, based on maps of subterterraines. Par le biais de dessins, encore ranean bodies of water. en cours, je m'intresse rendre visibles In this work and artistic research, which is des territoires et des gographies autres, still in process, I was interested in making
souvent inconscientes et souterraines, mais other geographies and territories visible, ofnon moins dterminantes pour les conditions ten unconscious and underground but not de vie la surface de la Terre, prsentes et less decisive for the conditions of life on the
venir. Les nappes d'eaux souterraines que tu prsentes dans tes dessins sont en constante volution. Leur temps de renouvellement est parfois
VF: VF:
trs lent. Tu nous montres ces nappes un moment prcis, fig, qui permet leur observation. Comme lors d'une exprience scientifique, nous pouvons compa-
surface of the Earth, both presently and in the future. The bodies of subterranean water which you present in your drawings are in constant evolution. The amount of time it takes to replenish these bodies is at times extremely long. You show us these bodies in one moment, fixed,
which allows us to observe them. As during a scienrer diffrentes entits un instant t, et engager des tific experience, we can compare the different entities hypothses quant leur nature, leur volution... at the moment and can engage in the hypothesis of their
Il semble galement que la plupart de ces nappes soit nature, their evolution voue disparatre. Anticipes-tu cette disparition? Pour- It also seems equally true that the majority of these bodies quoi est-ce important pour toi de construire aujourd'hui are doomed in the future; do you anticipate this disappearance? Why is it important for you to construct this memory cette mmoire? Dans ces dessins, je m'intresse la dure de remplacement at this moment today? des choses en l'occurrence les eaux profondes par d'autres In these drawings, I was more interested in the renewal time
MV: MV:
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relation diffrentes chelles de temps, et relier le prsent au pass et each other, and to link the present to the past and to the deep future. The two maps presented in the exhibition represent the waters deeply buried l'avenir profonds. Les deux cartes prsentes dans cette exposition reprsentent les eaux pro- under the sand of the Sahara (the Continental Intercalaire Aquifer) and the Great
fondment enfouies sous le sable du Sahara (l'aquifre du Continental Interca- Artesian Basin under ground in Australia, where the duration of renewal time surlaire), et le Grand Bassin Artsien sous les terres d'Australie, dont les dures de passes much the scale of human life, going into many tens of millennia.
renouvellement dpassent de loin l'chelle d'une vie humaine, allant jusqu' plusieurs dizaines de millnaires.
the scale of space. place l'chelle spatiale. Dans plusieurs de mes travaux, je m'intresse la mise en forme In many of my works, I am interested in the formation of long term d'une mmoire du long terme, c'est une faon pour moi de mettre en memory, it is a way for me to put different scales of time in relation to
qui leur sont semblables, plutt qu' leur disparition. Je les vois of things, in this case water, than in their disappearance. I see comme des cartographies temporelles, o l'chelle de temps rem- them as temporary cartographies, where the scale of time replaces
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Colophon Exposition In Absent Places We Dwell, Piano Nobile, Genve Commissaires de lexposition Vianney Fivel, Ceel Mogami de Haas, Marie-Eve Knoerle Texte Edito et essai Ceel Mogami de Haas Interviews Vianney Fivel, Ceel Mogami de Haas, Marie-Eve Knoerle Texte Les espaces ngatifs de limage en mouvement Genevive Loup Traductions franais-anglais Beau Rhee Relectures Thierry Maurice, Thomas Kppel, Beau Rhee Conception et ralisation de la bibliothque Lucas Cantori
Crdits
Piano Nobile bnficie du soutien de la Ville de Genve Dpartement de la culture et du sport, de la Rpublique et canton de Genve, de la Fondation pour la promotion de lieux pour la culture mergente / La programmation 2012 bnficie du soutien du Pour -cent culturel Migros / L exposition et la publication bnficient du soutien de la Loterie Romande, du Fonds Mcnat SIG, de la Fondation Ghner, du Fonds dart contemporain de la Ville de Genve (FMAC), de Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture, de STEO-Stiftung, du Service culturel du Canton de Glarus, Swisslos.
53
Concrete & Samples III Carrara Aglaia Konrad Production et distribution: Auguste Orts / Ashes and broken brickwork of a logical theory (prolog) Susanne Kriemann Courtesy: RaebervonStenglin, Zrich / Der Baum Erik van der Weijde Courtesy lartiste et Galerie Chert
ISBN 978-3-9521842-7-1
Johnson / Kingston, Bern / Luzern Photographies Florent Meng, lexception de la capture dcran p. 35 Auguste Orts, photographie p.37 Daniel Gustav Cramer Publi par activeRat, Berne et Genve 2012, www.activerat.ch ISBN 978-3-9521842-7-1 Impression Swiss Post Solutions AG, Zurich Edition 500
Graphisme Remerciements
90000 >
9 783952 184271
Tous les artistes, Maxime Bondu, Jennifer Chert et Lilly Daniell, Dimitri Delcourt, Andreas Kressig, Genevive Loup, Claire Michel, Kelly Miral, George NGobi, Lucie Renevier, Laurent Schmid, Matthias von Stenglin, Ramaya Tegegne, Alexis Zavialoff.
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54 Programme Paralllement l'exposition, une srie de lectures, confrences, performances, programmations de films et de musique, vient faire cho au contenu de l'exposition ou activer certaines pices des artistes prsents. Ant Farm, Inflatables Illustrated
1971-2003, vido ( avec des squences tournes en 16mm), 21 ' '20'
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Form en 1968, le collectif de jeunes architectes (Chip Lord, Doug Michels, et Curtis Schreier qui les rejoint l'anne suivante) dveloppe des approches alternatives de l'espace quotidien. En rponse aux paradoxes d'une architecture matrialiste fonde sur la prdominance de l'image, Ant Farm propose des structures gonflables qui s'adaptent un environnement instable. En 1970, est publi Inflatocookbook, un guide donnant les instructions ncessaires la ralisation de volumes gonflables, et incitant chacun construire son propre habitat lger et dplaable. Compilation vido de certains projets prsents dans cet ouvrage, Inflatables Illustrated, met en scne une dmonstration de l'conomie rduite de ces environnements, en ralisant quelques pices devant la camra. Parmi les diffrentes uvres, 50 x 50' Pillow (1969, installation temporaire) tait initialement prvue pour abriter des concerts de rock, ensuite adapte pour permettre aux artistes de s'y installer durant deux semaines dans le site dsertique de Saline Valley, l'ouest de Death Valley. Ralises avec ou sans plan, intgrant facilement des ouvertures, ces constructions prennent des formes changeantes et peuvent tre subdivises en des espaces intrieurs plus restreints. Redmond Entwistle, Monuments
2010, 16mm ( transfr sur blu-ray), 29'
lancement des trois ditions produites l 'occasion de l 'exposition:
Jeanne Macheret, Un site spcifique, prsentation de son dition (voir interview) Florent Meng, Wanderers sculptures, lecture (voir interview) Dedicated to those who survived. La ville d'Oklahoma City, dcida en 1996, de btir un monument aux survivants de l'attentat qui la toucha un an plus tt... et un comit fut charg de dfinir cette liste de survivants. Les personnes blesses ou celles qui avait t admises l'hpital entraient dans la liste. Les personnes ayant t chez le mdecin, pouvaient ne pas y tre. Les personnes dont la vie a t bouleverse par la mort d'un collgue ou d'un ami, les employs au repos ou malades ce jour-l ou sortis avant l'explosion pour aller un rendez-vous chez le dentiste n'taient pas considrs comme survivants. (...) Je relis encore la phrase dore pour essayer de la comprendre.
Florent Meng, extrait du texte lu
Camille Vanoye, projet de film qui n'a pas t ralis faute de moyen: La cabane, confrence qui fait cho son dition Everest par l... (voir interview) Je vais vous prsenter le projet d'un film, intitul La cabane, faute de moyen il n'a pas t ralis. Ce projet de film aurait ncessit un voyage. Il avait t convenu entre nous que nous ne dirions pas, dans nos entourages, le but exact de notre expdition; car, ou bien on nous aurait jugs insenss, ou, plus probablement, on aurait cru que nous racontions des histoires pour dissimuler le vrai but de notre entreprise, sur lequel on aurait fait toutes sortes de suppositions.
Camille Vanoye, extrait du texte lu
OctObre les espaces ngatIfs de l 'Image en mouvement
Dans Monuments, l'artiste anglais Redmond Entwistle met en scne, jous par des acteurs contemporains, Robert Smithson, Dan Graham et Gordon Matta-Clark. Constitu d'extraits d'entretiens et de textes des trois artistes, le script de ce film se fonde sur des problmatiques communes autour de la mmoire des transformations priurbaines. Alors que le personnage de Dan Graham dplie une carte, celui de Robert Smithson, rendu caricatural par sa perruque et ses lunettes, affirme que quelle que soit la distance parcourir, le marcheur est toujours ramen au point d'origine. Dans la squence suivante dfilent des reproductions d'uvres de Dan Graham tires de catalogues monographiques, alors qu'une voix over dcrit le dveloppement de son travail, focalis sur les habitations srielles et la planification suburbaine. La mme mise en forme est reprise pour la dmarche de Robert Smithson. La voix lasse de l'acteur dcrit sa pratique de collecte de matriaux dans les zones en marge des villes, ensuite disposs et exposs dans des structures gomtriques. Amorphe comme un zombie, le personnage de Gordon Matta-Clark parle de manire discontinue de son exprimentation d'autres usages de l'espace, par le recours des btiments dsaffects. Ensuite, des points sont pingls sur une carte du New Jersey: Montclair, Englewood, Bayonne, Passaic, annonant une visite des sites dans lesquels les artistes sont intervenus. Alors que les artistes exposent la ncessit de quitter leur atelier pour investir un contexte culturel politiquement et socialement structur, les uvres sont dsormais devenues invisibles, disparues avec les particularits des contextes dans lesquels elles s'inscrivaient. Prsentes sous d'autres formes, dans des espaces d'exposition, ces uvres continuent pourtant d'interroger les rapports entre les muses et la ville. Dans le prolongement de ces considrations autour des lieux de production et de prsentation, une vue extrieure d'une ancienne carrire est associe au cartel d'une uvre de Robert Smithson, Nonsite (Franklin, New Jersey, 1968), puis la monstration d'une installation ralise partir des matriaux extraits du site. ce propos, l'artiste affirme que l'attention peut se focaliser sur des points variables et modifier la perception des rapports d'chelle. Abord au travers de Splitting (Englewood, 197374), le travail de Gordon Matta-Clark s'articule autour des oprations de coupe dans une surface. Les enjeux analytiques de cette action ouvrent une complexit qui dpasse les choses visibles. Alors que le btiment de l'intervention de Splitting est aujourd'hui dmoli, le lieu tmoigne des changements sociaux oprs au cours du temps, le quartier noir tant remplac par des arbustes bien aligns. En cho la prise en compte d'une stratification spatiale et temporelle, les faades standard des architectures en sries sont ragences par Dan Graham dans Homes for America (projection de diapositives et article publi dans Arts Magazine, 196667). En conclusion, le personnage de Robert Smithson propose de reconstruire notre propre incapacit voir, en donnant forme une perception en ngatif. Cet espace de retrait est mis en uvre par le horschamp que convoque le film, comme le dcrit Redmond Entwistle dans un entretien avec Stuart Comer: Si le langage est une tentative de crer un terrain commun de comprhension, un contexte gnral pour travailler ou pour les uvres d'art, le film essaie de mettre en doute ce contexte largi du langage.1 Seth Price, Digital Video Effect: Editions
2006, vido, 12'
OctObre petra elena khle & nIcolas vermot petItouthenIn: there, where I should have been yesterday. I am here today. lecture sImultane
12
Un autre volet du projet There, where I should have been yesterday. I am here today (voir interview) qui traduit leur priple, y compris les dialogues intrieurs, par la parole (parfois superpose) et l'image.
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L'espace d'exposition est vid et recouvert par des posters contenant essais visuels des artistes, documentation photographique et interviews; ce nouvel accrochage est compos par les feuillets de la publication-journal In Absent Places We Dwell, dsormais relais et trace de l'exposition qui se termine.
Blue Yodel #5 (Holmes/Watson) performance de Gary Leddington L'artiste donne voir et entendre un autre lment de sa srie, Blue Yodel (voir interview) sous la forme d'une performance. Il s'agit d'un monologue schizophrnique partir d'un texte d'Arthur Conan Doyle et d'images d'art minimal. Looking in absent places ... MP3 curating by disco to disto Programmation musicale inspire du contenu de l'exposition, propose par Florent Meng. http://discotodisto.blogspot.com/
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programme vido propos par Genevive loup
L'exposition In Absent Places We Dwell se concentre sur des espaces dlimits et construits par des artistes, comme autant de lectures de la notion d'atopographie. Alors que la topographie est la technique de cartographie en deux dimensions et en chelle plus rduite d'un espace physique, l'ajout d'un a privatif voque des territoires dont les transformations rsistent ce systme de notation. Le temps d'une soire, deux vidos et un film d'artistes sont prsents dans l'espace d'exposition, en contrepoint l'installation temporaire des uvres. Apprhende par le biais d'une camra et d'un agencement de plans, l'exprience de l'espace se situe diffrents niveaux, travaillant la tension entre un contexte de travail physique et les structures plus abstraites du langage, puis celles des images filmiques, lectroniques et numriques. Dans quelle mesure certaines configurations se soustraient-elles la description et comment ces espaces ngatifs redfinissent-ils les critres d'apprhension d'un site? 1 Traduit de langlais par Genevive Loup : If language is an
Le travail de Seth Price pointe les espaces manquants des banques de donnes numriques, ainsi que le caractre alatoire de leur exploitation. Digital Video Effect: Editions a t ralise dans le cadre d'une exposition monographique que Seth Price organisa simultanment dans les galeries Friedrich Petzel et Reena Spaulings Fine Art, en collaboration avec le distributeur vido Electronic Arts Intermix, New York en septembre 2006. Intgre dans la collection de EAI, elle reste l'une des uvres visible, aprs que l'exposition ait ferm. Cette vido procde du prlvement d'extraits d'autres vidos de Seth Price vendues en dition limite par les galeries Petzel et Spaulings, et par consquent retires de l'espace public. Celles-ci incrustaient elles-mmes des fragments d'uvres d'artistes tels que Martha Rosler et Robert Smithson. Des chantillons de sons et d'images htrognes - uvres, extraits de films de fiction, images d'actualit et publicits - ont t assembls de manire relativement arbitraire, la limite de l'incohrence. Les coupes, tant au niveau du plan que du montage, marquent un changement de registre esthtique et soulignent les intervalles qui sparent des milieux culturels et conomiques, comme autant d'espaces disjoints.

attempt to create a common ground of understanding, a general context for working or works of art, the film tries to place this wider context of language in doubt. Une conversation entre Redmond Entwistle et Stuart Comer, What about Limits in Art ? , dans Monuments, New York, Art in General, 2010, p. 25.

In Absent Places We Dwell

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In Absent Places We Dwell

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in absent places we dwell

that alone should

encourage the crew.

#3 la conqute de l InutIle le dernier para' de l'exposition, Comme leitmotiv

pianO nObile GeneVe `

l 'orIgIne de l 'exposItIon est la naIssance de l 'harmonIe6.