The method 
of procedure 

The work  "on site" 


To mark out, locate, depict, touch, zoom, sample,
scan and listen to the landscape


n The work "on site" is executed like a ceremonial. Each time it recurs according to the very precise rules that we have fixed. Although it concerns a purely "poetic" survey of the landscape, the method of the procedure is almost scientific. It has something in common with the work of the topographer or the archeologist. 
 

n The chosen site is marked on the land by four boundaries and isolated from their surroundings by tape. A perfect square therefore limits the zone of observation. It is the "marking out" of the place and our way to take possession of it. 

In some particular cases, the site is more simply pointed by a staff. 

n The square is geographically located with GPS co-ordinates. 
A reference number is given to it. 

 
 
n A B&W panoramic photograph view depict the close surroundings of the site. 

n Imprints are taken in various sizes in silicone in order to restore the "tactile memory" of the site. It is the touch of the place. 
 
n Color photographic details identifies relevant objects into the zone, such as a zoom with the microscope. 

n Samples are taken to testify of the past life of the site.

n B&W photograph details of the ground material are realized at random into the square, such as a scanner. 

n A tape recording of local environmental sounds is made to complete the survey; a cartographic view or a satellite photograph will be attached to constitute the "sound boundary". 
 
 
n The entirety of these "samples" is meticulously brought back to the studio. It constitutes the basis of the material of our futur "installations". 
 
 
n In connection with the "touch" of the place and the imprints taking, Christine Wilmès explains: 

..."

I interrogate the walls and the grounds like others question the words. I try to understand myself and ourselves through the life of the other one that is inscribed into the strata of the matter in destruction. I fathom the mystery, I sound the "seen", the "heard", the "touched" and I am feeling deaf, blind; then, I palpate the signs. Each wrinkle, mark, scratch or graffiti reminds a story, arouses an imaginary, a feeling, a pleasurable sensation in front of the unknown identified or invented. I search for the trace, the footprint in the desert. 

The silicone, used to take the imprint, transfers the feelings; it shuts up the colors and the particles of matter. It freezes and fix an instant of life. It reveals me, in negative, other images and other realities. It compels to the motion and to the touch. Finaly, the imprinted object- heavy and opaque- metamorphoses into a "volumetric image" - blurred, fragile, vague and poet"... 

 

 

 


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