Ausencia (départ). 2016
Erasure poem, video, sound poetry/installation
Départ is a poem by Arthur Rimbaud written just a few months before he “abandoned poetry.”. Ausencia (départ) is a project divided into three actions or gestures, where I explore the spatial and fleeting agency of words, the plasticity of spoken language and the possibility of alternative translations between mediums. Words are used as raw material to deconstruct, dissect, and play with the monumentality of his action, questioning poetry as an absent action.
Assez vu. La vision s'est rencontrée à tous les airs.
Assez eu. Rumeurs des villes, le soir, et au soleil, et toujours.
Assez connu. Les arrêts de la vie. — Ô Rumeurs et
Visions!
Départ dans l'affection et le bruit neufs!
—AR
Départ #1, 2016. Video, 5:29 mins
A poetic action appropriating Rimbaud’s poem to delete it. The video questions the possibility of constructing empty space in the Word page, trapped in the virtual space of the screen and animated by a palpitating cursor that seems to be the blank page’s pulse.
Départ #2, 2016. Structure for sound poem and audio, 1:12 mins. Voice: Delphine Passot
The spoken words of the poem are placed over one another organized in columns in Final Cut. The whole poem is heard in one utterance, then words disappear, one by one. The saturation of sound transforms the temporal qualities of the poem. Words are organized as if they were concrete raw material deconstructing a poetic sculpture.
Départ #2, 2016. Structure for sound poem. 1:12 mins.
Départ #3, 2016. Graphite on wall written and erased.
The piece had a one month duration. Emulating the structure of the sound piece, words were arranged one over another and then erased every week until the wall was left empty.
