Babel: Littératures Plurielles (Dec 2022)
Faire émerger des îles. L’École d’été, un projet de recherche-création pensé comme l’affleurement d’une utopie concrète
Abstract
On August 20, 2023, I spent nine hours on the Frioul archipelago. I established the following protocol; walking around Ratonneau island during the day, trying to follow the coastline, as close as possible to the sea. I focused on the way I could describe this experience through writing. Using description, this enabled me to enjoy the moment to the full. It allowed me to pay close attention to things and people I met, on this island, at this specific moment. One more time, I experimented how much description is linked with imagination and divagation. Ersnt Bloch would probably name it the “diurnal dream”, a kind of daydreaming which appears from the lived moment and creates some other versions of what it could also be, in parallel to or in the place of the present moment. By imagining what we would like to see arise, we are already opening the door to a concrete utopia. Some extracts from this walking experience are woven together with another island’s life story: L’École d’été (The Summer School). An association co-created by artists, it aims to be both a concrete utopia and an embodiment of what it could be to work in the arts outside dedicated art spaces. The narrative of physical and sensitive experiences of an island is interwoven with a reflection on the role of the artist in the creation of new utopian outcrops.
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