37°46'45''N 122°25'9''W & 45°45'35''N 4°50'32''E
By Air Mail
curated by Gaëlle Cintre
with works by Maxime Baudouin / Maxime Charron / Heiko Volkmer
Alexandra Czmil, Adélaïde Fériot, Bénédicte Thoraval / Gaëlle Cintré
hosted in San Francisco by Caitlin Denny
edition Thomas Baile and Sébastien Pascot
online animation Alaric Garnier: The Space Between
Opening Lyon Monday 22 February 2010 7 PM
Opening SF, Wednesday 31 February 2010 7 PM
SAN FRANCISCO
37°44'58.11"N
122°25'15.22"W
Caitlin Denny,
1448 Valencia Street,
San Francisco USA
LYON
45°46'09.46"N
4°50'02.83"E
SKP, code 6214B, 3e D
8 rue Saint-Polycarpe,
Lyon, France
This exbihition, by its very unusual structure, was quite a
challenge for us to take up. The idea behind it was to
think its pieces in two places at once, plus a third one being
space of a website. The works presented in each
appartment can be understood independently, but also
make sense with the fragments missing.
Their two counterparts are connected through the website
to create a virtual image of the whole event. It is about
simultaneity and gaps, motion and transformation, dialogs
and echoes, doubles and repetitions, symmetry or the lack
of it, fragments and reproduction, communication
and relations. It is our very own way to somehow challenge
space and time. And as we like to say: “Why do simple
when one can do complicated?”
Gaëlle Cintré
predisposition, she had always felt an irrepressible desire to
stray, in an attempt to make sure she could exist somewhere
else too. And so, one day, without surprise, for it was nothing
but the accomplishment of an obvious reality, she was gone.
The first hazy sensation slowly became clearer but never
totally left her. It felt as she were leaving behind a part of
herself that she wasn't fully aware of before, but which had
begun to take shape with her departure, or perhaps even
before that, since the very idea of the departure.
And now, now that she was finally there, on the other side of
the world, facing the Pacific, the void she had left behind was
starting to take up more and more space. It seemed to her
that it materialized like her half by subtraction. And yet, she
knew she had never ceased to be whole.
Scattered into space, all those distinct parts formed in her
mind a sole entity, as each part couldn't be considered
without the others, being incomplete without the others.
She realized that thinking several places at once required
quite an effort of synthesis. She was experiencing absolute
synchrony. This vision reached such clarity that it forced a
yell of surprise form her chest. And the space vibrated
simultaneously here and there, for she was both here and
there.
She was gazing, dazzled, at the plurality of her existences
unfolding as seen through a multifaceted kaleidoscope.
At first, this feeling of becoming multiple made her dizzy.
But then, gradually, the vertigo faded as she came to a
profound understanding of this paradox.
She was pursuing her trajectory according to the impulse
of her desires. And as she accepted the growing indistinction
between her destination and her movement, she knew
that she had arrived and that the promise of a journey was
also that of a return, one day or another.
LAUT GEDACHT
shot – reverse shot of a displaced mind
-----
video in 2 locations, by Heiko Volkmer
A: So, what do you think of this new world?
B: I am not really sure.
A: Is it what you expected?
B: I don` t really remember what I expected, but in most
parts it´s different.
A: I guess that's usually the case.
B: I wonder why I can´ t really remember what I imagined
this place to be like.
A: I guess your mind replaces preconceived images by the
reality, so that you can´ t recover them. But why should
you if you know the reality.
B: I would like to compare my own imaginary reality with
what this place is really like. Even more important seems
to be what I expected my live to be like.
A: Is your life what you imagined it to be?
B: Only in some parts, but still, it´s is hard to remember
what I imagined.
A: Do you like your life, also considering the state of spatial
displacement?
B: It is very interesting and sometimes even adventurous
I might say.
A: Isn´t displacement something negative?
B: It doesn´t have to be. It just means that I am somewhere
else, at another place, in another reality. Sometimes I miss
the place that I came from, which I might call home, but it
doesn´t feel wrong to be here.
A: You just might call it home? But isn´t it home, because
that´s where you´re coming from?
B: I would also call the place home where I am living right
now and when at some point, I am going somewhere else,
this place is where I am coming from and that I might miss.
A: Home could be any place where you feel at home.
B: It doesn´t only have to be the place where I come from.
A: Are you feeling displaced, when you are not feeling at
home?
B: I could be emotionally displaced, if I feel uncomfortable
about a place and if I can't connect with it. Home might be
a place where I don´t feel displaced.
A: Did you connect with this new world you are in?
B: Everyday I discover new parts and facets of this world
and also about myself. I am glad I took the decision to
come here, it inspires me and my work.
A: What do you think where this inspiration comes from.
Isn´t it also the displacement that you pushed yourself into?
B: I wanted to enter an unknown reality which I have to
discover, but I am not sure if you can plan to be displaced.
A: You can´t displace yourself?
B: I am the one to make it possible, but not the one to make
it happen.
A: Does this new reality with it´s inspiration also change
your way of working?
B: It helped me to work more personal and subjective.
A: You say it helped to work more personal, so that's
something that you already wanted and tried?
B: I always thought that art can and sometimes should be
personal. Maybe in a well known environment it was more
difficult for me to put my personality and subjective view
in my work.
A: When you entered a new world and got to know its
reality, you also got to know more about yourself.
B: Making new realities part of my own means to broaden
my horizon, which means I widen the spectrum of my
knowledge and experience of the world and at the same
time to be able to go deeper into my inner me.
A: So a spatial displacement can create an emotional
displacement and both can be positive or negative.
B: They are not necessarily connected, a displacement
of the inner reality can also be created from the inside.
A: But entering an unknown world increases the danger
of emotional displacement.
B: And it increases the chance to develop your character
and artistic personality further.
A: What happens if you displace just one part of your
inner reality?
B: That means that I would have to separate it from me
and to be at two places at the same time and I wouldn´t
know how to do that!?
A: There might be a way, maybe you should think about it...
