As in previous works recorded in the countryside, Giraudon and Avenel take the viewer on a misty tour through the northern part of Canada where the Inuit live. Better known as the Eskimo, they are the original native inhabitants of this country. The inhospitable climate, the isolation and the beauty of this polar region, are all made tangible in a highly poetic visual narrative. Like the wind the camera sweeps across the cold landscape in continuous motion and does not permit a clear view of what is being taped for a single moment. The recordings from this journey have been abstracted by transforming subtle montages into visual impressions. The viewer is constantly challenged to decipher what is actually to be seen. The fact that this is not particularly important quickly becomes clear whilst watching. This is a video to experience, to be submerged in. Images from nature are gradually distorted into patterns and structures and vice versa. There is a wonderfully fluid transition from a landscape image with the horizon to a close-up of two fingers of a hand. The makers even give the moon extraordinary freedom of movement and a supernatural expressiveness. All in all, the images in this work speak for themselves and there isn't much else to say. The only thing Giraudon and Avenel will give away is the following anecdote: In 1969, somewhere in Northern Canada, a white person explained to an Inuit that humans had succeeded in putting a man on the moon. The Inuit laughed and replied that yes, it's been a while since their shamans have been there. Whilst the desolate arctic winter creates a type of scenic trance that perhaps makes it possible to imagine a cosmic environment and navigate it, maybe it's possible to be something of a shaman too.
– Marieke van Hal |
Marie–France Giraudon, 1961, La Caillère (France)
Emmanuel Avenel, 1962, Dieppe (France)
Live and work in Montréal (Canada) and Dinard (France)
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