EMBEDDED (fr)

Dans la série "Embedded" proposée par le photographe Vincent Ferrané réalisée en collaboration avec la performeuse Pauline Lavogez, l'espace circonscrit d'un lit devient le lieu radicalement épuré d’une expression performative. Le projet est une mosaïque d’images qui s’appuie sur l'espace-temps singulier d'une chambre d'hôtel pour développer une expérimentation entrecroisant comme sur un banc de montage pensées photographiques et chorégraphiques.

TEXT

The Bed as Microcosm

Derived from ordinary situations inherent to this intimate and universalizing playground haunted by our fantasies, fears, or passions, the created images offer enigmatic representations in seclusion: ethereal presences, bodies, suspended faces seize hold of this original setting and transform it into a microcosm, a topography.

A mattress-crater hollowed by a fist, clothes resembling geological folds, an improvised refuge beneath the sheets, ghostly silhouettes... give shape to a bed-landscape.

Title

Drawing its name from the English words "bed" and "embedded," which in our media-driven age conveys the idea of incorporation, embodiment, the series "Embedded" explores within the perfect rectangle of the bed, the place of the body, both social and metaphorical, as well as introspection.

A surface half obscure, half light, the bed's parcel becomes the virtual space of rest, projection, self-representation, while, in a relational aesthetic, jewelry, sheets, pillows, cigarettes, smartphones open horizons to a multitude of other spaces beyond ourselves.

Arts of the ephemeral, choreographic performance, and photographic thought converge to invent notations in which time is both the subject and the material, revealing themselves as an embodiment of the moving body.

Between pose and pause, the series "Embedded" draws from the attributes of live performance to script a mosaic of black and white still images, framing the gaze on fragments of bodies, faded, trapped in the penumbra.

Technical Setup - Experimentation

The set consists of a mattress covered with a white sheet. The walls glimpsed in the background are also entirely covered in the same fabric. While this set is actually established on only two sides, the various angles of shooting revolving around a subject seek to create the illusion or suggest that the space of the bed is surrounded by four white walls.

A cutout plays with illuminating all or part of the mattress surface, reducing it to the extreme through a narrow trapezoid, allowing darkness to invade the image and the body to disappear.

Black and white neutralize day and night, blurring the line between sunlight and moonlight.

The process involved employing a technique similar to automatic writing to create a list of everyday activities associated with the bed. This was an endeavor to comprehensively approach the subject from the standpoint of a collective unconscious, in a manner::

Scrolling, Binge-watching, Working, Drinking coffee, Spilling coffee, Eating, Crushing cigarette butts, Not waking up, Reading a book, Removing hair, Massaging oneself, Crying, Seeking sleep, Observing neighbors across, Stargazing, Making phone calls, Applying nail polish, Masturbating, Sewing on a button, Stretching, Feeling down, Crying, Taking selfies, Taking explicit photos, Smoking, Singing, Undressing, Dressing up, Redressing, Hiding, Thinking, Feeling hot, Feeling cold, Knitting, Insomnia, Self-observing, Drinking, Dwelling on thoughts, Sending texts, Waiting for a reply, Wearing a mouthguard, Escaping the outside world… etc.

But rather than trying to classify the actions, we identify a number of loosely defined figures, characters capable of carrying them out:

The Daredevil, The Melancholic, The Nervous, The Skillful, The Joyful.

References

"My Bed" by Tracey Emin, the great tradition of Venus depictions, Nan Goldin's rooms, Cindy Sherman and her self-representations in hotel rooms, Sophie Calle's "The Sleepers" series, the morning light on Edward Hopper's painted partner in a kneeling position, Annie Ernaux's "A Simple Passion," where the bed shifts from a place of physicality and self-discovery to a space of depression. Paintings by Francis Bacon, where he mentioned drawing inspiration from Muybridge, and bodies in struggle transform into carnal and violent encounters. Series of paintings of a reclining woman by Paula Rego, or close-up images by Douglas Gordon where a baby puts its foot in its mouth.

CV

Pauline Lavogez graduated from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, in 2015, and from the EXERCE program in choreographic research at the International Choreographic Institute, CCN, Montpellier, in 2022. Through performance, video-performance, and installation, she develops her research. Her work delves into the concepts of desires, conflicts, and dominations, drawing parallels between our vital bodily needs and our spontaneous production of violence.