hobson's choice, tam torrrance art museum, ca, usa/ online exhibition project/ 04-04-20, 30-06-20
http://www.torranceartmuseum.com/hobsons-choice/2020/4/18/week-3-maria-papapostolou-are-you-going-to-eat-your-soup-etc?fbclid=IwAR1ntoyiylXPpGa-cDNZBF5G4FfVW_C1XWnZgeGDOlKqSrACMZ3CKva1mTc
http://www.torranceartmuseum.com/hobsons-choice/2020/4/18/week-3-maria-papapostolou-are-you-going-to-eat-your-soup-etc?fbclid=IwAR1ntoyiylXPpGa-cDNZBF5G4FfVW_C1XWnZgeGDOlKqSrACMZ3CKva1mTc
Are you going to eat your soup, b--- b--- merchant of clouds? (Topologies of clouds), 2017, video, 13min
A video work about love, ownership and betrayal.
Video footage is filmed at an abandoned sand mine, situated on the highest top of Lefkada, the second most visited island of the Ionian Sea in Greece. “Lefkada” in Greek means whiteness, and sand is the natural resource that contributes to this island’s identity and reputation.
The island’s massive touristic industry though, is in high demand for garbage disposal areas.
This unclaimed land, useless and free from investment planning, seems an earthly choice.
The local community’s decision is pending, their visions of future are in conflict.
A new value is expected, yet of no prominent sort.
Will the rare beauty of the site- almost of an extra-terrestrial quality,
the history and uniqueness of the mine,
be outscaled by the needs of commercial growth?
There has to be a sacrifice, or is it a betrayal?
Worldwide, sandlands are in extinction.
Entire islands have been eliminated from Asian Seas to become building material of contemporary mega-cities.
This eco- crisis resulting to illegal excavation, even mafia deaths, raises the same questions of value and usefulness.
The work’s title is a citation from Baudelaire’s poem Clouds and Soup, his wife scolding him for being a clouds merchant.
Beaudelaire values passing clouds, as he puts it in another poem, the Stranger’s only love. (Petits poèmes en prose, I and XLIV-1869)
Could one say that what lies between love and its failure, its treason, is the cost of uselessness?
A field left un-mined is a cloudiness.
In this short film, a drone camera goes on a fruitless search- a day dream- in a post-human future environment.
It moves in a mechanical way, by remote control and inconsistencies, having as driver assistant, or guide, a digitally produced voice.
This non-human agent offers instructions on how to own a cloud, how to handle it, in a broader sense, how (or not) to manage cloudy conditions.
A video work about love, ownership and betrayal.
Video footage is filmed at an abandoned sand mine, situated on the highest top of Lefkada, the second most visited island of the Ionian Sea in Greece. “Lefkada” in Greek means whiteness, and sand is the natural resource that contributes to this island’s identity and reputation.
The island’s massive touristic industry though, is in high demand for garbage disposal areas.
This unclaimed land, useless and free from investment planning, seems an earthly choice.
The local community’s decision is pending, their visions of future are in conflict.
A new value is expected, yet of no prominent sort.
Will the rare beauty of the site- almost of an extra-terrestrial quality,
the history and uniqueness of the mine,
be outscaled by the needs of commercial growth?
There has to be a sacrifice, or is it a betrayal?
Worldwide, sandlands are in extinction.
Entire islands have been eliminated from Asian Seas to become building material of contemporary mega-cities.
This eco- crisis resulting to illegal excavation, even mafia deaths, raises the same questions of value and usefulness.
The work’s title is a citation from Baudelaire’s poem Clouds and Soup, his wife scolding him for being a clouds merchant.
Beaudelaire values passing clouds, as he puts it in another poem, the Stranger’s only love. (Petits poèmes en prose, I and XLIV-1869)
Could one say that what lies between love and its failure, its treason, is the cost of uselessness?
A field left un-mined is a cloudiness.
In this short film, a drone camera goes on a fruitless search- a day dream- in a post-human future environment.
It moves in a mechanical way, by remote control and inconsistencies, having as driver assistant, or guide, a digitally produced voice.
This non-human agent offers instructions on how to own a cloud, how to handle it, in a broader sense, how (or not) to manage cloudy conditions.
Topologies –CLOUDS is a video project processing material filmed at an abandoned sand mine the summer of 2016 in Lefkada Island.
We visited the site with Natasa Biza seeking information over a local issue of conflict, in the context of our artistic residence at Neion- the island-resignified (a project by Dimitra Kondylatou). Sand is a natural resource that contributes to the island’s identity and reputation while resonates a worldwide crisis, it being still the primary material of building. The construction of contemporary cities has eliminated islands from Asian seas, and to this day sand is illegally excavated and sold on the black market in several parts of the world. This video is about the search on a field of conflict and conclusions pending. Located on the island’s highest top, the old sand mine remains free of use and investment plans for the moment. This unclaimed state reestablishes openness on the field: visions of future are to be found there. The actors are expected. The research goes on mechanically, by remote control and inconsistencies, while we get instructed on how to manage cloudy conditions. |
Το έργο Τοπολογίες –Νέφη αντλεί και επεξεργάζεται υλικό από την κινηματογράφηση που έγινε σε ένα εγκατελειμμένο αμμορυχείο το καλοκαίρι του 2016 στη Λευκάδα.
Βρεθήκαμε εκεί με τη Νατάσα Μπιζά το πλαίσιο της εικαστικής διαμονής στον ξενώνα Νήον (ένα πρότζεκτ της Δήμητρας Κονδυλάτου) προκειμένου να αναζητήσουμε πληροφορίες σχετικά με ένα ζήτημα που απασχολούσε την τοπική κοινότητα. Η άμμος είναι ένας φυσικός πόρος που σε τοπικό επίπεδο συνεισφέρει στη φήμη και ταυτότητα του νησιού ενώ, σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο, βρίσκεται σε κατάσταση κρίσης. Η ανοικοδόμηση των σύγχρονων πόλεων έχει εξαφανίσει ολοσχερώς νησιά στην Ασία. Εκεί η άμμος εξορύσσεται παράνομα και πωλείται στη μαύρη αγορά. Το βίντεο ακολουθεί μια αναζήτηση σε ένα πεδίο διαμάχης που μένει σε εκκρεμότητα. Το παλιό αμμορυχείο βρίσκεται στο πιο ψηλό σημείο του νησιού και παραμένει ελεύθερο από χρήση και επενδυτικά όνειρα προς το παρόν. Η αχρηστία καθιστά τον τόπο πεδίο οραμάτων μέλλοντος και παρόντος. Οι επιθυμίες και δυναμικές αξιοποίησής του αναμένεται να φέρνουν τοπικούς και υπερτοπικούς φορείς και πάλι σε αντιπαράθεση. Η αναζήτηση γίνεται μηχανικά, τηλεκατευθυνόμενα και με ασυνέχειες. Στους υπότιτλους δίνονται οδηγίες για τη διαχείριση και αντιμετώπιση νεφελωδών καταστάσεων. |
LA SOUPE ET LES NUAGES
Ma petite folle bien-aimée me donnait à dîner, et par la fenêtre ouverte de la salle à manger je contemplais les mouvantes architectures que Dieu fait avec les vapeurs, les merveilleuses constructions de l’impalpable. Et je me disais, à travers ma contemplation : « — Toutes ces fantasmagories sont presque aussi belles que les yeux de ma belle bien-aimée, la petite folle monstrueuse aux yeux verts. » Et tout à coup je reçus un violent coup de poing dans le dos, et j’entendis une voix rauque et charmante, une voix hystérique et comme enrouée par l’eau-de-vie, la voix de ma chère petite bien-aimée, qui disait : « — Allez-vous bientôt manger votre soupe, s…. b….. de marchand de nuages ? » Baudelaire: Petits poèmes en prose, XLIV |
L'étranger-
Qui aimes-tu le mieux, homme enigmatique, dis? ton père, ta mère, ta soeur ou ton frère? - Je n'ai ni père, ni mère, ni soeur, ni frère. - Tes amis? - Vous vous servez là d'une parole dont le sens m'est resté jusqu'à ce jour inconnu. - Ta patrie? - J'ignore sous quelle latitude elle est située. - La beauté? - Je l'aimerais volontiers, déesse et immortelle. - L'or? - Je le hais comme vous haïssez Dieu. - Eh! qu'aimes-tu donc, extraordinaire étranger? - J'aime les nuages... les nuages qui passent... là-bas... là-bas... les merveilleux nuages! Baudelaire: Petits poèmes en prose, I (1869) |