Project Dam 2
Ressac|re
by
Justine Blau & Stéphane Ghislain Roussel
Stéphane Ghislain Roussel (1974) is a Belgian-Luxembourgish violinist and musicologist by training. He has a freelance career as a director, playwright and exhibition curator. After working in various Parisian institutions such as the Musée de la Musique, the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre, he is the artistic director of the multidisciplinary creative office PROJETEN (based in Mamer), where the question of our sensitive relationship with ecosystems is a major focus. Among his current fields of research, he is exploring (with programmer Julien Ribeiro) the phenomenon of the " scream " in the arts, as well as a reflection on " the expansion of total art through utopias to be lived ", or how creation and life can merge in a will to build other models of society.
His latest creations include Snowball (Mudam, Fondation Martell de Cognac, MECA de Bordeaux, 2019); Drawing on Steve Reich (Rotondes, 2019). He recently curated the exhibition "Opéra Monde, la quête d'un art total" at the Centre Pompidou Metz. In 2022, he will stage Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis and the world premiere of En vertu de... by the American composer Eugene Birman at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg.
Justine Blau adopts a multidisciplinary approach in her work, mixing sculptures, installations, photographs and videos. Through her projects she deals with ontological questions about the relationship of man to nature, to the image and to the living world.
Her projects include: Vida inerte, Centre Nei Liicht, Dudelange (2020); Artist residency at the Cité internationale des Arts, Paris (2019); Ein Fenster inmitten der Welt, Wolkenhof (2019); Paysages recomposés, Prieuré du Pont-loup, Moret-sur Loing (2018), Commissioned by the Drescherhaus cultural centre, Luxembourg (2018), Robert Schuman Art Prize, Metz (2018); Corridor 2, Pachamama, Insitu, Berlin (2017); LEAP Encouragement for artists prize, Rotondes, Luxembourg (2016); All roads lead to Schengen, FracLorraine, Metz (2015); Don't Panic. A harmless exhibition, Cape, Ettelbruck (2015); The adventure of a photographer, Los primeros emprendores, Galerie Toutouchic, Metz (2013); Los primeros emprendores, Centre d'Art Dominique Lang, Dudelange (2013); DistURBANces, - LandEscapes, MNHA, Luxembourg (2013); Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London (2013); DistURBANces, MUSA, EMOP, Vienna (2012); Noorderlicht Festival, Terra Cognita, Museum Belvédère, Oranjewoud (2013).
She holds a master's degree in sculpture from Wimbeldon Sculpture of Art and a Dnsep from Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg.
In response to the theme of natural borders, the aim of Ressac|re is to take a different look at the particular territorial configuration of dams, by proposing a sensitive dialogue around fertility. At the heart of our project is a question: what dynamics are at work here between the human hand and the ecosystem? The planned interventions, which are intended to be as "pacifist" as possible, aim to place respect for living beings at the centre of the action.
The installation "Ensemencement" (Seeding) is composed of flags, adorned with cyanotype drawings dealing with pollination. They are scattered with seeds, which, according to the wind, will sow the premises throughout the festival. Migrating from one place to another and taking different forms, the flags appear as different ways of conceiving "a demos". These states also appear as "stages" or "spaces" of a plural theatre, hosting different performances around the sounds of silence, walks and musical conversations with the stars or with the climate. The project concludes with a participatory agora. A permanent and fertile dialogue thus takes place between all these elements, while exploring new modalities of a total art that thwarts the effects of power and authority.
A play on the French word "ressac" (backwash), a form of back and forth of waves that bring and wash away with intensity, the title also refers to the Rite of Spring, a famous piece by Igor Stravinsky (1913) that tells how spring can take over each year if it is offered a female victim. No victims here, on the contrary, the desire for a panoramic and generous exchange.
Ensemencement de Justine Blau, 2021,
six pollinator flags with seeds
Recovered linen and cotton sheets, spruce flagpoles, poppy seeds, common daisies and local cornflowers, stones, steel stands
In the framework of RESSAC|RE.
Curation by Stéphane Ghislain Roussel
Migration 1 - Barrage 2, Duchfabrik: 17 July
Migration 2 - Riverbank, Kaundorf Street: 6 August
Migration 3 - Castle: 30 August
Production : Séibühn
Co-production : PROJETEN