Berlin – Paris – Lusignan – Loix – Berlin 2

Lusignan. In the middle of France. Heatwave.

I’m on a research tour for my new film. All on Super 8 as usual but a little bit longer! I got funding thanks to Berlin artist senate!!

“Welcome to Lusignan, land of knights! Located about twenty kilometers from Poitiers, the cradle of the legend of the fairy Mélusine”

“The legend tells the story of Mélusine, a young girl cursed by her mother and condemned to the following curse: every Saturday, her legs transform to two serpent’s tails. A mermaid. If caught in this state, she will never be able to return to human form. To break the curse, she must marry a man who will never have to see her on Saturdays.
In Lusignan, she meets Raymondin and agrees to marry him on the condition that he does not seek to see her on Saturdays. After their wedding, Raymondin then became the most powerful lord of Poitou. The fairy Mélusine, the builder, built the Château de Lusignan on her husband’s land, as well as other majestic cities and fortresses in the surrounding area.
But: Out of curiosity, one day Raymondin seeks to unlock his wife’s secret and discovers her serpent’s tails while she is in her bath. When Melusine realizes this, she disappears screaming and profaning horrible threats against the fortresses she has built for her husband.”
(https://www.tourisme-vienne.com/en/webzines/lusignan/)

I discover her everywhere … and I like her. Her husband Raymondin, well, he couldn’t leave her alone one single day … control freak! So she left.

More in the next posting! I found the castle remains!!

Berlin – Paris – Lusignan – Loix – Berlin 1

Starting my journey! It’s all for my next film … I got some funding so I am able to travel, pay for train tickets and accomodation and a handful of super 8 cassettes!

First stop: Brussels, then Paris.

It’s so hot in Paris, you can hardly imagine it. Here I am, trying to fan a bit of air into this sweltering carriage …

Kuzunguka

A small but lovely exhibition opening the night before last at the Kunstverein Neukölln – a self-managed gallery in my neighbourhood.

I am one of six artists exhibiting there. Title: Kuzunguka: “People and animals move swiftly through the city. Changes in pace whilst travelling between town and country. Sometimes stumbling or even floating. Or working in the fields, as migrant workers, in Finland.
This exhibition will feature, amongst other things, pinhole photographs of moving people in the city, a drawing, collages, a cyanotype and prints documenting journeys by regional train.
Kuzunguka: A verb in Kiswahili, pure onomatopoeia, meaning ‘to move between places’.”

(I developed my 5 pinhole photos in Berlin beer called BRLO!)