notes / Still Life Poetique
STILL LIFE POETIQUE / ENG
STILL LIFE POETIQUE / ENG
by Stephan Jung
Milan January 7, 2013 8:40 am: “fog as thick as <<purée>>”. A physical phenomenon
transforms the perception of the world. Water vapor meets a colder area changing its
state. Infinite microscopic droplets of water suspended in the air.
A testimony to the fact that “Même les saisons sont des milieux”. Even time is a space or, in this case, more precisely: even the weather conditions create spaces.
Fog is a sign of air’s materiality. Air becomes opaque and suddenly the world’s apparent infinity ceases to exist turning into something intimate. The bombardment of visual stimuli produced by the galaxy of objects and things which surround us every day is suspended. Things, lines and colours which usually get lost in this complexity, appear individually or in small groups. They become part of small occasional settings which exist only for this precise moment, only through them and more importantly only for them and us.
*
The horizon as the historical witness of the dimension of space no longer exists, it is replaced by proximity. The infinity and multiplicity of space eventually became an environment that measures no more than 100, 50, 10, sometimes even only one meter in diameter.
Things appear gradually. First you might catch a shadow. While proceeding this shadow gradually becomes a figure and turns into a tree, a house, a skyscraper or a person. Geometry changes continuously from indeterminate to precise before returning to a more indefinite state and finally dissolving into nothingness. The sequence of trees and facades which usually form the avenues of the classical city and therefore its image is transformed into a set of one, two trees and a house.