Anne Le Mée

The river

Performance - Films - Objetcs...

Film version I: Chapel of the Palacret, Saint-Laurent de Bégard, France. Individual exhibition "Eosphères", Itinéraires Bis Festival, 2013.

Videoprojection in triptych, non sonore, no sound, 35 minutes in loop.
Objects and productions linked to the Gouët and Vilaine rivers'routes (See Fractale M)

Film version II: Cultural Center le CAP, Plérin, France, 2013.

No sound, 20 minutes in loop.

Film version III : Cultural Center le CAP, Plérin, individual exhibition, 2015.

Film with sound, 25 minutes in loop.

In 2012, I traveled the Gouët River from its source to its mouth, walking in the riverbed or with a canoe when I had no footing. A small camera on a float filmed in front of me. This route was completed in around twenty stages, 5 to 9 hours of walking each time. I systematically followed all the meanders, and according to my calculations, the Gouët is 250 km long instead of the 45 km on the map.
The shots resulted in three distinct films depending on the locations where they were presented. The choice and order of the sequences shown differ according to the versions, as well as the mode of projection, there is no definitive film.

The film does not always respect the chronology of the territories crossed while nevertheless moving towards the geographical end of the river.
“Incidents” (wet lens, camera turned over, stuck, extraneous sounds, etc.) are an integral part of this.
The rhythm of the shots is given by the movement of the water: slow and peaceful when the water stagnates, rapid and jerky, sometimes to nausea, in the drops and waves.
Thanks to the wide angle of the camera and its proximity to the surface, everything magnifies: a stream one meter wide appears five meters, the smallest rock becomes a mountain.

These films show an archetypal western river (the name does not appear in the projected versions), with its characteristic features perceptible in the image. Everything is shown equally, without staging: the bucolic nature of the young river, the siltation and pollution in the port, the crowded boats, the abandoned reaches, the dam...declined from the constantly moving surface, giving the silent and touching view of the river itself.
An intimate and introspective approach to the river which raises the question of our real relationship to this environment which is both close and unknown.