WIEDERGEFUNDENE SEELEN | 2020
The villagers from Fiesch valley, Switzerland, dependent on nature and tourism, make arrangements with God, with the spirits and with scientific projects. Each plays an essential part in order to maintain the basis of their community in terms of identity as well as economy, the heart of their existence: the Aletsch glacier.
In this valley at the end of the world, between myths and sciences, ecology and tradition coalesce into one relentless motion towards the future.
WHITE - OUT | video 8min 23 | 2017
In the video, the artist intervenes by painting directly on the cliff near a Swiss glacier. The purpose of white paint is to change the albedo– the heat reflecting capacity of a surface– in order to lower the temperature of the surfaces exposed to the sun. This project, as logical as it is, seems absurd and infinite. In reality, the technique has already been applied, particularly in the Andean Mountains in Peru, as well as on the streets of Los Angeles.
In the video MOVE AGAINST NOISE, the artist films boxers from the suburb of Paris, who are practicing their sport in a public space, chosen by the boxers. The different “spots” are linked through a slow travelling. The control of violence is channeling, and made visible in the urban or semi-private space, where the tension of this repression has its origin.
The outside becomes an extension of the private inner conflict in a city, and vice-versa and points the question: What are we doing with the noise in us?
The video installation was born out of the need to provide an accurate picture of Cañada Real Galiana, a street of 15 km length, along which the houses were built are deemed illegal. The representations of this street in the media take advantage of its reputation, contributing to the stigmatisation of those who live there.
Cañada Real Galiana, passing through Madrid, runs from the town of Coslada to the municipality of Getafe is inhabited by 8,000 people of 40 nationalities.
In the video juxtaposed tracking shot images show only the walls replicating the aesthetic of the "Google Street View," which does not exist for this place. As if going through a street of decreasing economic status, the houses are first made of concrete and brick, then the materials slowly diminish until there are only huts and tents left, along with Madrid’s sewage treatment plant. The images on the walls act as an indirect and subtle indicator of the reality behind them.
LA CAÑADA REAL GALIANA, UNA PANORÁMICA AUSENTE | video installation | 2016
SCRATCHED AND ENGRAVED - REVISITED | video 6min 30 | 2016
In the work SCRATCHED AND ENGRAVED, the walls of public spaces are represented as the skin of a neighbourhood.
Violent, racist, and sexist, political comments, as well as love stories, are written on walls, trees and phone booths.
These statements, reflecting the atmosphere of a location, are projected on the human body and transformed into scars and brandings.
Credits | Ronan Prigent
Sciéntifiques et artistes de la Casa Vélazquéz 2016
BOREI KEILA, OK | video 52 min | 2013
The film follows the evolution of Borei Keila, a slum in the center of Phnom Penh. It shows through architecture the eviction of the people, the relocation sites outside of the city and the struggles of the victims. In 2013, in Phnom Penh, there were 410 slum communities. 170 of them have already eviction letters. Borei Keila, that should be an example for fair development became the example of cruel land grabbing in Cambodia. After three decades of civil war, serious poverty in Cambodia is widespread. Under the Khmer Rouge period from 1975 to 1979 private land ownership rights were abolished. Today, a large number of the Cambodian population is alienated from their land and homes as the elites and foreign investors plunder the country for private profit.
Credits | Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques | Le Fresnoy - studio national |Artists-in-Resindence Suisse | UBS Kulturstiftung Schweiz
PHNOM PENH CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION | video 15 min | 2012
Just behind the Railway station of Phnom Penh Cambodia people are living on the tracks or in abandoned wagons.A few times a week, a train is passing by, it's never sure at which time. People are removing their affairs from the tracks to let the train pass through their living space, their houses.
Credits | Alain Arnaudet | Martin Tillman
SINGLE SPEED FLOATING ACTION | video 7 min | 2009
Adolescents from Roubaix are dancing on a frame filling big wall. The red brick is representing the past of the region, the typic stone used for the housing of the workers of the coal mines and textile factories. But the wall is also representing the hard condition of life the kids are dealing with.Using just their body, the teens are fighting against the wall, are dancing on it, flying.
A dream of freedom, success and recognition.
Credits | UltimeStreetParkour59
ENSAD | Le Fresnoy | Jeremy Courmont
CRUMBLING, PAST DAYS IN SYRIA | 35mm copie 2K HD 9min | 2012
The architectural heritage in Syria is particularly impressive. It evokes the feeling that each site has its own importance in terms of historical architecture and is filled with memories. The proximity of ruins everywhere, modern buildings, abandoned construction sites and squatted ruins gave me the feeling of living in a world where the concept of time as we know it does not applyThe sound of DAVID TRESCOS is the story of this film: a story of crumbling, falling apart and, in the end, the story of new birth. Shot on the bench-title with a high contrast black/white film, each image is corresponding to a specific sound. The pictures consist of re-filmed architectural photographs shot in Syria: Palmyra, Malula, Bosra, and Damascus.A journey through the first civilisations, in the strict sense of people living in cities. The film is dedicated to Tamer al-Awam, a Syrian filmmaker and activist I had the chance to meet in Berlin. He was killed in 2012 during while working in Aleppo.
Credits | Le Fresnoy | Jeremy Courmont | Jean René Lorand | The United Clutch Fondation | Cultures France
| ARCHIVES |
I ALWAYS GET CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT WAS AND WHAT COULD BE
FRAGMENTS OF DESTRUCTION
BRACHLAND / TERRE EN FRICHE / NO MAN'S LAND
GERADESTEHEN