Døgnvill is an untranslatable Norwegian word.
It describes those moments when you can no longer distinguish day from night, a metaphor for those floating states of consciousness, when you slip into a widening and time disappears.
In a monastery in Norway, on the island of Halsnøy, for a month, I let myself be drawn into the images that spring from unfiltered thoughts, invented rituals, games of chance, and dives into nature. Taking photos on the edge of consciousness, I let go of all formal attention, with total openness: mixing black and white, colour, film, digital, portraits, landscapes, photos day and night, sharp, blurred.
Natural, spontaneous images, without a filter, connecting as much as possible to that non-mental space that vibrates before thoughts. My approach was experimental, often resembling automatic photography, in the vein of the Surrealists’ writing, to create images that emerge as possible fragments of the unconscious.
I read books aloud to trees, explored the forest at night, followed animal tracks, swam in cold water, contemplated blue hour for a long time, followed strangers at sea, had passing strangers paint my body. I imagined, wrote protocols. I mixed meditation and photography, alone or with Norwegians. I listened to the invisible world, to the whisper of the trees. In a vertigo, my photography became a dance.
A shamanic feeling, bewitched by stories of ghosts on the island. And of violent monks who ransomed the inhabitants to save them from hell! I liked to imagine the lightning splitting the trunk of the oldest ash tree in Norway in the monastery garden.
The red resonates with the Red Road of the Amerindians, a path of initiation and vision, connected to nature. And of confrontation with one’s fears.
One day, tracing the lines of my travels on a map of the island, the shape of a comet appeared. I looked for the presence of the comet in my photos, as a form of cosmic echo to my explorations.
Then I tried out one last protocol on my return: looking at the photos while perfuming myself with holistic fragrances – this art aims to harmonise the body, soul and spirit through smell. And the images were transformed into emotional arrows, short-circuiting my reflection.
A journey without psychotropic drugs, to bring deep emotions and forgotten memories to light.
Series produced during an artist residency in Norway with the Sunnhordland Museum
Video of the exhibition at Les Arches citoyennes, 9-11 february 2024
