CAROLINE ETTER (CH, 1983) & LAURA SPOZIO (CH, 1982)
Residency period: October-December 2020
The research we developed at La Becque is based on anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus’ 100,000th scale Globe which he designed for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
A scaffolding grid as well as modular wooden architecture were first used to survey a portion of the landscape for us to position ourselves in space, thus becoming the very medium of observation. Through the links between geography, technical drawing and the history of representation, we then looked at instruments situated between these different registers. These were reconstructed in a new scale or transformed and then integrated into the structure. While geographers are often dependent on imposed divisions and choices of scale that orient and influence his results, our literal “standpoint” enabled us to introduce a new relationship between bodies, objects and elements of the landscape.
The resulting hybrid installation, designed as an in situ walk, is representative of Reclus’ vision, for whom knowledge of the world should be built in the double synchronous movement of body and mind. “Every individual can be a geographer”, he said, and we have positioned ourselves concretely in this perspective.
Trained in visual arts at HEAD – Genève, Caroline Etter approaches her art by taking existing structures whose organisation, form or materiality she then modifies. Her installations play on one’s gaze as a subjective framework for perception, understanding and representation of the world. Laura Spozio holds a degree in Photography from CEPV in Vevey and a BA in Visual Arts from HEAD – Genève. Her research focuses on non-spectacular activities and gestures, and revolves around experimental audio-visual practice, discrete actions in the public domain and the creation of installations.
Photo credits: Pierre-Yves Mingard