MARIE-FRANCE & PATRICIA MARTIN

DU NOIR DANS LE VERT

Exhibition from 8th February to 15th March 2008

Opening Thursday 7th February from 6pm to 9pm

Galerie Les filles du calvaire is pleased to present the video Du noir dans le vert by Marie-France & Patricia Martin in the Project Room of the gallery.

The exhibition will end with a lecture-performance by the Martin sisters: Du noir dans le vert : « Aïe I said I ».

Patricia & Marie-France Martin ruthlessly explore our sentiments and emotions, ceaselessly tracking and dissecting the human species and lifting the veil on its conscious and unconscious aspects – the double image here finds its full strength.

The video, entitled Du noir dans le vert, was inspired by the cabin which artist Hans Op De Beeck developed in situ in 2001 for that same exhibition series. The work sits there like a drab observatory, with a view of two walnuts trees, lost in the middle of a vast, green meadow. One tree is alive, towering high above the caved-in remains of the other, dead tree. Around this almost romantic image, the Martins created a story of their own, and as usual the idea of duality plays an important role. Two sisters are roaming around in a meadow, near two trees. They chop the dead tree to pieces and take the wood to a pool, deep in the surrounding forest. At night, in the moonlight, they dress in hermetical white costumes and paint the stump that is left over, as if this were part of some ritual. They are observed from the window of the cabin by a(nother?) woman. The video develops a multi-layered exploration of the space between the self and the other, the confusion between the genuine and the copy, between reality and fiction. Similarly to such directors as Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Bergman (Persona) and Hitchcock (Vertigo) they explore the concept of identity in their work, amidst an illusory world of reflections and fusions. The electro-acoustic soundtrack is by the Brussels' sound artist Arnaud Jacobs (Missfit).

Day after Day, Kunsthalle Fribourg, Fri-Art 2003-2007 (catalogue)

by Stoffel Debuysere, Argos festival Brussels, 2005 (catalogue)

Du noir dans le vert

By Marie-France & Patricia Martin

« A short news item. On an electronic composition (made to measure): pace across an idyllic landscape (Swiss mountain air, Flemish light), measure the space between the walnut trees, juggle hypotheses, draw lines (in search of clues between the upright tree and the fallen one). Chop, separate, move (pieces of the dead walnut tree). Gaze at one’s reflection in a pond (favorable for apparitions; check that two and two make four? Mirror, mirror on the wall who is…). Step over barbed-wire (holding a basket from a fairy tale). Swap tops and bottoms (shirts and skirts, to confuse everything). Busy oneself around the fallen tree, wearing white overalls, splashing it in red (fake blood). Approach the window of the shed (it seems as though someone may be inside), be scared at the appearance of faces in the window (exact superimposition), run away in terror. Roam the countryside (legs immersed in dandelions, cuckoo-perched-bird-cuckoo-drowned-tree). Repeat (obsessively) pointless chores. Lose one’s bearings (trapped in fields, in the forest, in a charming spot). Fear (one-two lost faces). Do as if (minor drama).»

Finissage Saturday 15th of March at 5pm, lecture - performance by Marie-France & Patricia Martin:

Du noir dans le vert : « Aïe I said I ».