- Dates
- —
- Curated by
- Pascale Pronnier i Marie Thérèse Champesme
Carolina Saquel
La catàstrofe és groga (The Catastrophe Is Yellow)
9 February–18 March 2007
Carolina Saquel (born in 1970, in Chile) is both a painter and a video artist, with a personal interest in the specific questions raised by painting. Invited to create work in dialogue with Joan Miró, she was drawn to his exploration of pictorial space and the poetic quality of his imagery and titles – even borrowing the titles of her own videos in Espai 13 from his works.
As Saquel explains: “In his paintings and graphic work, Miró presents a conception of space where figure and ground are inextricably interwoven in a seamless interplay. Surface and depth become, in a sense, equivalent. He abandons the illusion of depth and traditional perspective, establishing a unique relationship between the elements: there are no main or secondary figures; everything carries equal weight in terms of representation. In this respect, his work connects – directly or indirectly – with Eastern philosophical and artistic traditions. The notion of ‘emptiness’ is a theme that runs through his work and is central to my own practice as well. Miró teaches us to look more closely at the everyday, to find the unfamiliar within the familiar.”*
In the group of videos presented here, there is likewise a rejection of the illusion of depth and a reflection – already present in Miró – on the transition from one state to another, and on the relationship between movement and stillness. Carolina Saquel poses the question: “How can movement be found in stillness, and where is the point of stillness in something that is naturally in motion?”*
“In this kind of camouflage – a blending of textures, materials and natural elements – and in constant transformation, it is the movement of leaves, the passage of the wind, that I am interested in filming. I move towards the detail of textures and nuances of colour; ultimately, I aim to show the movement that even a seemingly immobile wall can produce.
My intention is to evoke the experience of looking and of contemplation that one might have before such a wall, as well as the feeling of being in the presence of a particular kind of ‘nature’.”*
By slowing down or speeding up footage and using dissolves between shots, Saquel creates overlaps in space and time. In doing so, she lends a sense of strangeness to otherwise ordinary landscapes, inviting viewers to experience an alternative temporality.
Commissioned and produced by the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.
Co-produced by Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains.
Filmed in Paris, 2006.
Direction: Carolina Saquel. Camera: Yannig Willmann. Editing: Carolina Saquel. Colour Grading: Santine Munoz. Sound: Aurélie Valentin. Sound Editing: Aurélie Valentin and Carolina Saquel. Sound Mixing: Cyrille Lauwerier.
With thanks to: Madame Simone Brunau, Cité internationale des arts, Florent Le Duc and Matthieu Cereau.
*Quotations taken from notes by Carolina Saquel.
