Michel Lorand

 

6 Scene a Venezia
—  

2003

INSTALLATION

Six locations in Venice have been selected. They form a series of stages linking the Arsenale with the Grand Canal at the level of the landing stage of the vaporetto stop at San Samuele (Palazzo Grassi). The itinerary can be followed in either direction and can be picked up or abandoned wherever you like. Each site has been chosen for its character, and the resulting group is intended to be very varied: a wide open space, an enclosed space, a very busy campo or a quieter, more intimate one; flamboyant architecture or simple houses and markets.

A single thread links all the campi: this is the well (pozzo) or the fountain, the wellspring of daily life. Through these water sources, the constant flow of water echoes the passage of time: from the past to the present, from day to night.

In each of the six campi a series of projectors on stilts create a patch of daylight around the water source, as if a film were being shot. The light goes on automatically at nightfall at 9.30pm, and goes off at 11.30pm. The atmosphere and sound events of each campo have been recorded earlier, throughout a whole day. Loud speakers fixed to the top of the stilts holding the projectors reproduce the sound picture of each location via its own personalised sound track.

Each evening at each of the six locations – from the end of August to the end of September – any passer-by going into the patch of “daylight” from the darkness of evening will be surprised by a visual and aural shift between day and night. At that precise moment he will have the opportunity to complete his nocturnal vision of the campo through his own imagination, stimulated by the sound track.

Photography – Serge Verheylewegen

6 Scene a Venezia