Un balcon en forêt
A balcony in the forest | Rillieux 2011 |
from 08 septembre to 31 décembre 2011
in resonance with la biennale de Lyon 2011
in partnership with ATC caractères, société VAC and 3A Composites
special thanks to Christophe Aussenac and Jean-Louis Valat
in partnership with ATC caractères, société VAC and 3A Composites
special thanks to Christophe Aussenac and Jean-Louis Valat
A balcony in the Forest takes place from October 1939 to May 1940, during the « Phoney War » in the Ardennes, a zone of German attack. Julien Gracq describes the life (the waiting) of four soldiers in a stronghold house, a bunker surmounted by a sort of chalet. Grange, the main character, is caught between a soldier’s life in the forti ed building, and an inner life that emerges in the forest at night. e daily wanderings of the character is likened to a journey through the forest that gradually pushes him to the slope of his reverie, « he felt as walking through this unusual forest was the same as traveling through his own life ». The balcony, a place suspended between the inside of the fort and the outside of the forest, symbolizes what Michel Foucault calls a « heterotopia », a non-stratified space between a closed reality,
that inhabited by history, and the open space of the forest, a mental space. It is one of those places that situates itself outside of all places, yet it remains detectable. Concrete spaces, like a shack or a theatre, that break with time and host the imaginary.
that inhabited by history, and the open space of the forest, a mental space. It is one of those places that situates itself outside of all places, yet it remains detectable. Concrete spaces, like a shack or a theatre, that break with time and host the imaginary.