conVERSEverse {
aurèce vettier: var (mount dialogue, line 1);
// triangulated dialogue technique: each line from the poem prompts ES (Elisabeth Sweet) to create a dataset of resonant texts, quotes & questions. PM (Paul Mouginot) uses the resonant dataset as input for his dialogue with the poem, making invisible connections within aurèce vettier’s Potential Herbariums ecosystem visible.
“without our presence, the soil breaks down,”
PM: I believe that if we become artists it’s in one way or another to leave a trace of our passage on Earth. To leave an almost eternal trace, you’d have to be able to send your work to the far reaches of the universe, in a probe for example, as Laurie Spiegel did with Voyager in 1977.
For most of us. however. it’s all about unfolding a story, a body of work from our world, and that can’t be done without some form of sincere, respectful collaboration with nature.
I was born in France, in the mountains, and when I was a kid, many houses still had big gardens, full of birds, where people grew their own fruit and vegetables. Today, every time I return to my native region, I see ever-increasing urbanization, and when they are sold, the gardens of these houses are now cut up to build even more cuboid dwellings, all identical. Birds, hedgehogs, beauty and ornamentation are becoming rarer.
In the poem “without our presence the soil breaks down,” a plant is the main speaker. When I walk in a territory disfigured by humans, such as a disused commercial zone, I ask myself whether our actions are reversible, whether these disfigured areas can be returned to nature as Sebastião Salgado has done. I would like my practice to help improve reality, the state of nature, in a measurable and sincere way.
}