History of the Wind
Photo and video installation, 1h 24mins, 2010.

This installation is the fruit of an invitation from the Festival d’Avignon and Centre National des Arts Plastiques asking the artists to work with the themes of history, traces, and contemporary creation in the context of the Festival dai??i??Avignon.

How to account for this history, how to keep a trace of a live performance?

Through a History of the Wind, the artists explore the performances that occurred in the main courtyard of the Palais des Papes during which the mistral (also known in French as the ai???wind of the Southai???) manifested itself.

The eruption of this recurrent wind alters the performances in Avignon, at times elevating them, at others destroying them, yet always leaving a lasting impression in the audienceai??i??s mind. The wind arises as a dual echo, that of a theatrical representation in Avignon with its specific features and concerns related to the history of putting live performance into writing.

On one hand, the installation gathers accounts of certain actors in regards to this history of the wind and on the other, archive images of performances in which the wind rose up that are digitally reworked so as to be placed in the Palais des Papes courtyard, like a passing breeze, a transcendent or critical link, the trace of a historyai??i??

This installation does not aim for a historical or thorough dimension; rather it structures itself around souvenirs, mythical stories, encounters, recordings, and existing images of Avignonai??i??s wind. Many others could have been summoned here, now floating like absences that haunt the images and device.