VIDEO
TEPHRA is a video-performance made on Vulcano Island, in Italy, with 11 girls during the ecology, science and art residency “THE POSSIBLE ISLAND”.
Duration : 8min19
ARTISTIC TEAM
Creation : SUZANNE
Video : “TEPHRA”, 8’19’’ video, 2021, ©SUZANNE
Direction : Julien CHAUDET
Scenario & Choreography : Lorenz JACK CHAILLAT-CAVAILLÉ, Julien CHAUDET, Julien DERANSY & Eurydice GOUGEON-MARINE
Performers : Ambra, Asia, Aurora, Carlotta, Cristina, Jasmin, Matilde, Miriam, Morena, Sara & Sveva
Music : MOLPÉ (Marina SANGRÀ)
Production : Geoheritage pour Geoharzard Resilience UNESCO IGCP692 & The Possible Island
Direction of the THE POSSIBLE ISLAND residency : Cecile GENOVESE, Daniele BELLONIO, Léo MARIN, Muriel MARASTI & Francesca SABATINI
PARTNERS & SUPPORTS
THE POSSIBLE ISLAND, UNESCO, Vulcaniamo, Université de Clermont Auvergne (63), Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans (63), Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont-Ferrand 563), ANR Agence Nationale de la Recherche (75)
SYNOPSIS :
In a natural and oppressive environment that humans never seem to have altered, TEPHRA tells in pictures a contemporary myth of the volcano : one that is embodied by a half-children half-nymph feminine group. In contrast with the figure of the hero, its resilient behaviour facing danger is personified by boredom, softness, mutual assistance, rite and acceptance of a future as peaceful as worrying.
STATEMENT OF INTENT :
The residency project THE POSSIBLE ISLAND held in June 2021 on Vulcano Island, Aeolian islands, has been a unique experience leaving a striking mark in the creation process of SUZANNE. Originally scheduled for Springtime 2020, this one-month artistic residency has been postponed many times because of the global pandemic that put most of the artistic projects on hold. The unwavering ambition of the organisers, of their scientific support and also of UNESCO finally enabled THE POSSIBLE ISLAND to come true in 2021 with a contemporary relevance and a resistance to the crisis inherently essential to the project.
Ecology, science, art, resilience, and geoheritage have been some of the many notions considered, addressed, and embodied during the residency. As for SUZANNE, those notions came out as the directing of the video-performance TEPHRA, that binds as much oceanological, volcanological and semiological studies with the sensitive experience of the territory as daily islanders life and SUZANNE’s creative and imaginary world.
TEPHRA is a scientific term frequently used in volcanology to describe and extract certain fragmentary sediment layers of different sizes going from dust to small stones. Perceptible to the naked eye, tephras are witnesses to the past volcanic eruptions. SUZANNE takes over the term and its definition to apply it to another ecology, the one of living things, represented by a group of 11 girls (from age 4 to 13 living on Vulcano island).