OUVRIR LA FORET

of OLLEREAU Frédéric

FRANCE, 2009, 00:06:00

Production : OLLEREAU Frédéric
Genre : Video art
Keyword : Environment, Space, Land art, Performance

Summary :
The camera is set on one foot. It presents a static shot: a wood and a man cutting trees. The shot is wide and open. Trees fall down one after the other. The wood is edged with two paths. The man is going into the heart of the wood. He is digging the forest. Little by little, he eventually reaches the end of the wood. He cleared the opaqueness. Light appears from the other end of the wood.

This video presents both documentary and artistic aspects.
First of all, it is an ancestral custom: fire bote. It has always existed, it exists and it will keep on existing. This film shows such practice.
Then, from a plastic point of view, trees represent verticality. The man who is cutting is horizontality: the trees lie down. The third dimension is the penetration into the wood.
The physical framework is determined by the border paths.
The progressive appearance of light confronted to the forest darkness while the character is going into the heart of the wood determines time.
The action takes place outdoors, the man penetrates the forest and discovers another exterior, that is light’s.

The combinaison of all these elements transcends the videographic practice towards a "purely" plastic space. The support becomes a receptacle that analyses the shape as well as what constitutes it. Framework, verticality, horizontality, depth, light, shadows : the constituants of time and space are put all together.

From a post-production point of view, no videographic effect is displayed. The video work is a succesion of falling trees. A "cut" editing is carried out with regard to the subject of the presented images.

to print