Movie 70 min. (English & French versions), Sound and Text byOcean & Wavz
“Dis-Placed/Ex-Changed” unfolds a poetic, sonic, textual and visual practice of skimming the textures and vibrations happening in-between a word, an image, a sound, a silence, a statement, expressing the infinite, subtle and nearly impossible fixed identification/representation of a “displaced person”.
An image continuously (un)veiling itself by hollowing out the materiality and fantasy of what could be a “screen”: a fabric, a fishing net, an embroidery thread, a cloud, a tracing paper, a curtain, a sky, a coral, an atomic explosion, a building facade, a foliage, a skin, a wave… right down to the look and the touch of our own computer/projection screen.
Generating then… a beat, a movement, a rustle, a clatter, a splash, a swallow, a stretch, a suffocation, a whisper, a breath, a tremor, a caress, a declaration, an extension, a retraction, a suspension.
“Dis-Placed/Ex-Changed” is an attempt to represent a subject in search of a place in a place that is never in its place. The film is thus about offering the experience of displacement rather than simply showing an object/image in motion.
The film skirts, borders, touches, digs, points out a process of “distanciation” from a fixed identity, origin, place, community, nationality… which arises often during life experiences (individual or collective) caused by any form migration, exile, deportation, destruction of natural environment, oppression, occupation or confinement.
“Dis-Placed/Ex-Changed” engages into an on-going re-composition of the subject caught in-between cultural and historical gaps, as well as porosities between the care of the self/other and decisive democratic, ecological and geopolitical issues.
The artwork can be projected as a movie into a cinema or can consist of a visual & sonic installation made of: . LED screen panels: the front size is used for the movie and the back side keeps visible all electrical and numerical cable connections. . A traditional Asian mattress made of coconut fibers will partly cover the LED backside screen. This weaved traditional net will allow a “seeing through” that makes interesting the inter-relations between numerical cables & vegetal fibers, natural and artificial materials, vernacular practices and so-called “advanced” technologies. . A very few enigmatic floating words will be embroidered on the mattress with yellow weaving threads and copper wires. . High quality sound system or headphones . Tatami and simple benches where people can relax, watch movie, listen to sound only, sleep…
Image: – Recording/editing of daily human, urban & industrial activities (Paris, Shanghai) – Recording/editing of manual activities and music performances (Polynesia, Shanghai) – Recording/editing of shores and sea landscapes (Brittany coast, Chile coast, East Pacific archipelagos) – Recording/editing of bio-marine scientific research (Schmidt Ocean Institute collaboration, Palo Alto, San Francisco) reworked with video equipment.
Sound: – “AIR”, 2023, original music composition, 2:33 – “Dark Moon”, 2023, original music composition, 2:15 – “Silence (Revived)”, 2023, original music composition, 10:55
– “With Out Saying”, 2023, vocal recording in traditional Chinese, French and Maori languages (different durations) – Sound recordings of coral life and deep sea Pacific Ocean hydrothermal vents (MEIL acoustic Lab collaboration, Taipei, Taiwan) and reworked with sound equipment (different durations).
Text: – Paul Gauguin, “Avis – Tahiti aux français” (Public Notice: Tahiti to/for the French), published in Les Guêpes magazine, October 12, 1900.
. Artworks captions rigorously credited by/from different Museums: London British Museum (UK), Dallas Museum (USA), MoMA New York (USA).
. Academy of Tahitian language, on-line dictionary.
. Statements officially published by governmental channels, public media sources, research centers documents.
