2272 m
TYPE : independent art and writing residency
MEDIUMS : textile, words, painting, installation
DATE : 2022
PLACE : Refuge de Vallonbrun, Parc National de la Vanoise FR



«I speak less here.»


SYNOPSIS :
« I want to self-isolate in a mountain shelter to hear myself think, to write, to create. A friend gives me the contact of Hélène, a mountain’s shelter guard (Refuge de Vallonbrun), in the Vanoise region in France. We first talk through email, she likes my project. We then decide ; I will come to the shelter during one week. She will provide me with accommodation  and food in exchange for my help as a guard at the shelter. I will also provide her with a photographic series for her communication work. I go there alone with : warm clothes, a headlamp, a toothbrush, a paper map, a book, writing notebooks (draft notebooks as they are very light), a few pens, a paintbrush, a small pot with black textile paint, a big textile (white cotton), a flag that I painted and built myself, my camera, and at the bottom of my backpack, as always : a survival blanket, my Swiss knife, and a small first aid kit. I leave Grenoble at the end of the afternoon, I sleep at night in my tent near Val-Cenis. I hike the following morning to the shelter, at 2272 meters of altitude »

PHOTOGRAPHS :
















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ARCHIVES :

JOURNAL EXTRACT
« Day 1. I arrived at the shelter late morning, with a heavy backpack, with materials for a few art pieces, and most importantly, materials for writing. There is not network at the shelter, I need to walk away in front, take distance, walk a little, to connect to the world through my phone. It feels really good.
(…)
I can’t bear the city anymore, and mostly, I can’t stand smartphones anymore. I need to have some peace. I need to focus. I need to not manage things from the city, down. I need to be up here, without problems of humans. I find humans really weird. I need to feel my words in my vagina and to let go all thoughts and tensions from my physical parasites. My words and myself.
(…)
I speak less here. I have the feeling that I’m more sincere here. I tell myself that down, I pretend. Pretend what ?
(…)
There is not hot water. There are big blankets. I will sleep very well. I always sleep well at altitude.
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1 - blankets of the shelter
2 - photography in the shelter, after the storm, writing at the table
3 - the map to arrive at the shelter
4 - in progress painting in front of the shelter
5 - painted textile drying in the wind at the shelter
6 - sensible imagination cartography of my stay at the shelter : the shelter is surrounded by plants and the wolf. We speak a lot about the wolf, it has a strong symbolic presence, a legend, but I didn’t see it - black ink on silk paper
7 -painted textile drying in the wind at the shelter
8 - in situ, textile painted in the wind, movements
9 - installation with the painted textile, digital installation on round rock levitating
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WORDS {in French} :




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