INSTANTANÉS
2019 - 2021
Instantanés is a body of work which comprises various series and installations combining photography, audio recordings, text, and Braille. It was presented at a solo exhibition held at the Espace Saint-Ravy in Montpellier in 2022.
A few years ago, a blind friend of mine told me he was at a very specific location, even though he didn’t know which city he was in that day. “But how does he know that?” I wondered. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that sounds, smells, or changes in the ground’s surface could serve as spatial landmarks. I needed to understand this different way of perceiving space and landscapes.
For a sighted person, the landscape is made up of images and colors. Our relationship to space is mediated through visual description. Here, our attention is focused on our senses as a means of grounding ourselves in the present. At a time when the visual seems to be bombarding us from all sides, this series offers a moment set aside for simply feeling.
The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to gain insight into how blind persons perceive landscapes. This project was created with participants Sabine Bertrand, Florie Bouilloux, and André Allard.
Exhibition view, Landscapes 1, Küsmus, monographic exhibition, espace Saint-Ravy, Montpellier, France, 2022
Landscapes 1
2019 - 2021
2019 - 2021
This installation presents a juxtaposition of sensory descriptions of landscapes told by the participants and photographs of the same landscapes, captured at the same time.
Audio
1:08 mn
1:08 mn
« (...) On my left, the banks block my view of the horizon. I can follow a sensory route by the echo they send back to me. All I have to do is follow it carefully. The colours and light change throughout the day and from season to season.
One evening, the light was so bright that I had to call someone to find out if the moon was already there. That person confirmed it: it was a full moon. »
Sabine Bertrand, translated by Lucie Berquiere
Audio
1:08 mn
1:08 mn
"(...) And then there's this bird, on the other side, in a tree, chirping repeatedly. It is like if its chirps are bouncing back and forth in front of me. It seems the sound is bounced off a smooth surface and goes back into the sky. This is not just an echo or a resonance.
The bird's short, high-pitched cries seem to be captured by this enclosed space and refracted into shards. It is like if there is a mirror of sound in front of me..."
Florie Bouilloux, translated by Lucie Berquiere
Landscapes 2
2021
2021
The second series in this collection focuses on the sensations that make up the participants' favourite landscapes. I proposed that we visit the location they hold in the highest regard. On-site, we made a list of all the non-visual sensations that make up their favorite landscape. I then photographed these sensations based on their list.
« The softness of their coat »
« The sound of the wind in the reeds »
The Eye
2022
Comprising a text written in Braille by Florie Bouilloux and a photograph, this installation is the final piece in the Instantanés exhibition.
« Hard, warm and rough
The touch of your skin under my fingers
Caressing a tree
Mysterious drawing
A hollow, a round, a bump
I am touching your eyes »
