« OUESSANTINE MURMURATION»
Residency Schedule
One Week on the Island of Ouessant
Accommodation at the CEMO (Centre for the Study of the Ouessant Environment).
Meetings with passionate ornithologists—discovery of species such as the Snow Bunting and the Red-billed Chough.
Nineteen Days on the Island of Ledenez Vraz
Accessible from Molène during tides with a coefficient of 71 or lower.
During the entire stay, I spent eight consecutive days without being able to access Molène. The rest of the time, tidal conditions allowed for crossings intermittently.
Arrival
Monday, October 25, 2021
The sun rose over Ouessant at 8:55:15 and set at 19:12:34.
Based on the tidal schedule graph:
The first low tide occurred at 2:28, and the next at 14:48.
The first high tide occurred at 8:16, and the next at 20:36.
We experienced 10 hours and 17 minutes of daylight, with solar transit at 14:03:54.
Lune Gibbeuse – (demi cercle)
Lunar age Illumination Distance
18.6 jours 84% 405 246km
Soleil : 148 701 636 km
On that day, I dove alone for the first time in the Iroise Sea. In 15 minutes, I managed to spear a bass about 28 cm long and learned how to properly prepare and cook it in 2 hours—filleting it and making a beurre blanc sauce.
Source : mareespeche.com
Vitality : essential
Murmurations
Murmurations are an aerial ballet that begins in autumn, in November, a period when I was in residence at Ouessant and Ledenez Vraz.
– A residency organized by the Finis Terrae association in collaboration with the Brittany region, in connection with a.c.b, as part of the “Vents et marées” program.
This phenomenon, or behavior, of murmuration is found in gregarious animals. We speak of “gregarious instinct” to describe animals or groups of individuals that live in herds and “…have an instinctive tendency within the same species to gather and adopt the same behavior.”
Alone on the island of Ledenez Vraz, I wanted to blend into my environment, sometimes out of necessity, other times for pleasure. I ended up responding to my moods through a geological overlay: “the rocks are barren; the water rises; the tide carries everything away.”
Tides and murmuration share a similarity: when they overwhelm the landscape, the bodies and algae begin to dance—revealing the ballet of the individuals.
“Quelle merveille que de retrouver chez les êtres vivants les mêmes substances qui composent les minéraux ! Néanmoins ils éprouvaient une sorte d’humiliation à l’idée que leur individu contenait du phosphore comme les allumettes, de l’albumine comme les blancs d’œufs, du gaz hydrogène comme les réverbères.”
G. Flaubert
I danced. I lived lying in the soft grasses, my body as the only imprint; I was able to hold in my arms these pebbles heavier than dinosaur eggs; I read the dreams of the stones through the seaweed that had clung to them—seaweed like growths on these frozen beings—dreams and visions like soft bodies I could manipulate.
Living in the moment, only worrying about whether a seal will disturb the next fishing outing. Living in the moment would be like running on the rocks. A moment when all your attention is required to anticipate the instantaneous, because looking too far ahead would make you fall.
As part of the Tempête #3 Residency, conducted through the “Contre vents et marées” program:
PROGRAMME CONTRE VENTS ET MARÉES
a.c.b – Contemporary Art in Brittany / Regional Council of Brittany
The residency is part of the “Contre vents et marées” program, an exceptional support initiative for visual artists.
65 artists from the region benefited from this exceptional aid from the Regional Council of Brittany.
In response to the economic vulnerability of visual artists, 53% of whom were living below the poverty line in 2019—a situation worsened by the health crisis—the Regional Council of Brittany and the a.c.b network launched an exceptional regional fund in 2021. This fund, totaling €200,000, is aimed at supporting young artists from the region.
