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He who travels far can tell many a tale. This is certainly true for the present tape, as the experienced student of holiday brochures may recognize quite a few familiar spots: pyramids and camels (Egypt), a monkey on top of a bus (a Safari in, for instance, Kenya), a floating vegetable market (in the klongs of Bangkok), a man in traditional 'samurai' dress (Japan), a ferry (a hard one, but thankfully parts of the Big Apple's skyline could be spotted among the passengers). Of course there are also fragments containing too few clues to put them firmly on the map. An iceberg can float anywhere, but my guess is it is in the Antarctic, for this now seems to be the destination travel operators have zoomed in on for the well-to-do tourist. The remaining category consists of a varied mixture: a deer (large urban park or preserve), a swimming pool near a golden beach (tropical island), a bi-plane in the air (airshow), ducks among the waterlilies (park). These images, often shot very appropriately rather badly focused, jerkily or in extreme close-ups (or a combination of these beginners' mistakes) initially have single words printed across them, but gradually flash a fast-flowing stream of sentences from right to left across the screen. This is followed by a text which is easier to keep up with as it is spoken, which derives its poetical character in part from the set first line repeated every new paragraph/stanza. "With the daggers I pilfered from an angel I built my dwelling", to which a variety of continuations is given - here touched upon only very briefly - such as a) whisps of smoke, b) the silhouette of an owl, c) the loneliness of burnt matches or d) the foliage of the wood housing gypsies. In short, this tape is a tribute to modern drifting, a delight with which prehistoric nomads were familiar already, although they used Flint instead of Video.
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Erik Daams
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Text: Sabine de Chalendar, Arthur Rimbaud, Edmond Jabes, Editing: Christian Bahier, Sound: Nicolas Joly, Music: Gualtiero Dazzi, Voice: Yan Ziegler, With thanks to: the daughters of Edmond Jabes, Christine van Assche, Post-production: Service Audiovisuel Centre Georges Pompidou
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