Ghost Ship

Ghost Ship, le bateau fantôme, était un projet d'exposition durant la pandémie en février 2021, qui a pris la forme d'une série d'événements animant durant un mois l'espace d'art contemporain Kulturfolger à Zurich. Les artistes impliqués étaient: Amélie Bargetzi, Gregory Collavini, Anne-Laure Franchette, David Jacques, Dorota Lukianska, et Cora Piantoni.
Ci-dessous les quatre courts textes rythmant le déroulement des événements, ainsi qu'un lien vers le court film éponyme en dialogue avec l'exposition et les oeuvres des artistes.

Ghost ship was a TETI Group month long spectral project at @kulturfolger, Zurich, exploring global uncertainties through maritime lenses and spatial displacement. Throughout February, the ghost ship embarks on a journey into 1 brouillard (fog), 2 terreur (terror) 3 spectres (Gespenst) 4 rêverie (dreamsea).

1 Brouillard

In the beginning was fog: A veil of opacity lies over the land. Or is it the waters? It is momentarily hard to catch contrasts in a sea of greys. ‘Vapor condensed to fine particles suspended in the lower atmosphere.’ It fills the air with contemplation, locked in ‘evanescent strips' and weavings of ‘linen sheet' (Mahon from Lucretius). The realm of nature engulfs us all. ‘Tout l’automne à la fin n’est plus qu’une tisane froide.’(Ponge) Although there are rumours. In the corridors, fleeting voices and raspy murmurs; ‘et la vapeur des haleines avec les fumées des candélabres faisaient un brouillard dans l’air’ (Flaubert). Tucked in the mess, the realities of the outer world appear hazy. A cigarette burns, ‘forever sideways' (Ponge), a silhouette fills the kettle, when the captain suddenly appears, his mind in disarray: ‘Mein Schiff ist verloren, rief er, dort segelt der Tod!’(Hauff)

Then 2 Terreur

'Aber Entsetzen! Welches Schauspiel stellte sich meinem Auge dar, als ich das Verdeck betrat! Der Boden war mit Blut gerötet…' (Hauff) The sky is blue, salt in the air, 'the sun, a crucible of nuclear rage,' (Cronin). Ice on the cake, feet in the sand, sublime silhouettes of energy for 'new-fangled men' (Klingender). The scenario is crisp, visibility is good, we send our men onto the platform. The object of our attention is 'thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbons.' What do you see Jack? 'Terreur et fascination' (Corbin), that was the sea, now the extraction of its underbelly, 'it's looking rather explosive out there Billy’. Yes, 'explosion du gaz liquide au contact de l'éponge.' (Duchamp). The heat is coming. By Jove, someone is panicking out there. Is it 'the end of the modern world' (Cronin)? Pump it up. That was the mantra, don't you know? Besides the local engouement, 'there exists symptoms of decay' (Marx) Light, intermediate, heavy, that is the viscosity.

Visuals from “Là où nous sommes” Amélie Bargetzi, @ame_lie_chen, 2020, 36’53”

3 Spectres

Divine comedy. The scene, a harbor in Elsinor. Giant wind turbines on the horizon. A ship sails towards the shore. On the outer plating, 長榮, from the ever green island, Formosa. Two men look out in fancy clothing, red cloak, funny hat. ‘Thou art a scholar, Speak to it, Horatio.’ Jacques le fataliste, ruminating on the capital, did he forget his school friend who out of the blue decided to study oriental languages? Oriental dragons. ‘Some are said to carry the palaces of the gods on their backs, while others are believed to determine the course of streams and rivers and to guard subterranean treasures’ (Sebald). These two could then see ‘troubadours, trumpeters, troubled makers’ (Lee) making their way beneath the blinding light, become conductors of digital invisibilities. ‘It is easy to descend into Avernus. Death’s doors stand open day and night. But to retrace your steps and get back to upper air, that is the task, that is the undertaking’ (Virgil by Heaney). They board a fishing boat, an antiquated wooden curiosity, to take a proper look at this beast of steel. ‘Io sentia voci, e ciascuna pareva pregar per pace e per misericordia' (Dante).

Pictures (c) Cora Piantoni #corapiantoni

4 Rêverie A night by the sea, chattering and laughter, fry oil and lemon, a shout in the street, a night in Tunisia, sand and tar and sea, a darkening sea, ’que la mer me débarrasse, de toute cette boue, de toute cette graisse, de toute cette suie, de tout ce sucre.’ (Butor). A Knight by the sea. Yes, a Knight. A Knight emerges from the sea in white armour, ‘l'uomo aragosta !’ There is no one inside the metallic shell covered with algae and mussels. ‘E com’è che fate a prestar servizio, se non ci siete ?’ With plastic and surgical masks. ‘Con la forza di volontà’ (Calvino). In the night, a screen is shining, ’Yet when cocky men peered round the curtain of sky, there was no god and the mists came’ (Durcan). Divine presence is infrastructural these days. I open the window to look at satellites, ‘...le transistor s’est arrêté, nous sommes si loin de la mer, nous n’avons jamais vu la mer que par images’ (Butor).

Details of Anne-Laure Franchette’s @alorsannelaure assemblage “They cleaned the beach before we arrived”, Driftwood, seaweed jewels in bio-resin, hemp thread, industrial metallic chains.