The Drift
The French artist-duo Hantu, consisting of Pascale Weber (Sorbonne University, Paris, France) and Jean Delsaux (University of Clermont-Ferrand, France) screened the film 'The Drift' at the Musee D'Art Moderne Grand Duc-Jean (Mudam) in Luxembourg on 9 September 2018.
The Drift was created in Plymouth during their artist-in-residency in 2014, hosted by the Land/Water and the Visual Arts Research Group in collaboration with the Marine Institute.The film had its premiere at the Ocean City Festival, September 2014.
The Drift, designed by the Hantu duo, consisted of Pascale Weber floating in a white dress down from Steer Point, Plymouth – the highest accessible point of the River Yealm – to the estuary, experiencing the passage from fresh water to the salt water of the Sound. The strong September tide allowed Weber to lie on her back and drift quickly in 14° water – although the temperature felt 12° because of the wind.
Jean Delsaux, assisted by a diver, followed Weber with a camera, and recorded not only the performance itself, but also became part of the performance by making it explicit for the spectator to see what Weber was experiencing. Filmed sometimes from the boats of the Marine Institute which framed the operation, sometimes with an amphibious camera, two boats constantly turned around Weber's body, charting her journey.
The film proposes a meditation on the dynamic space in which we are immersed and how we perceive only the surface of the water and we forget that we are acting as much as we act. The Drift draws for our senses a line that is the result of the encounter of underwater currents invisible to us.
The Breakwater (Dancing a line in the Sound)
Hantu also showcased their film 'The Breakwater (Dancing a line in the Sound)' on 3 September 2018 at the Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois, where Pascale Weber discussed the anthropological, cultural, and socio-political issues that characterise her work.
