It is said that some Native American tribes believed that we walk toward the past with the future behind us, because the past is something we can see in front of us, while the future remains behind us—like a blind spot, invisible and unknown. They believed that the white patches (the stars) we see in the sky were holes through which the light of the universe entered, and that darkness did not exist there.
When night falls, the lighthouses and the world begin to light up and spin, tracing an intense yet fleeting line on the horizon between sky and sea. Sailors, immersed in the vast ocean of endless data, trying to decipher their ship’s course by connecting the dots in the sky, knew that when their eyes met a swirling beam of intense, bright light, land was near…
Looking from afar is like looking back—like the light from dead stars that remain visible, even though they ceased to exist long ago.
The first thing we see if we arrive by boat from America is the Créac’h lighthouse. Every 10 seconds, we see a light announcing the proximity of land—it is the eye of the old continent, the beam of an artificial star that, every 10 seconds, flashes to show the way to travelers from the sea, who often come from the New World, or from the end of the world—Finistère… the other end of the world.
These lights mark the land or its end; they are the world’s reference signals, signs of arrival or return, traces that guide us to a particular place, like constellations that carry within them the memory of their own light, pointing to their past and their future… in the present.
Two Rotating White Beams
2K Video
2017
Duration: 24 min 41 sec
Collection of Frac Bretagne
I have seen clouds fall towards the sky
I have seen skies darken
I have seen my eyes go blind
I have seen clouds reach the sky
I have seen skies turn red
I have seen lights on the horizon
