Spoken Word (une chanson parlée)

Intro (digression on a psycho acoustic chord)

My uncle’s an astronomer. I’ve always thought it was fabulous having an astrologer uncle, being an astrologer I remember the time when he told me a lot of what he did was just sitting at his computer observing black dwarfs, which are stars – or planets, I’m not sure – that you can’t see. - "But what do you look at, then?" I asked him. - "I look at curves. And when they bend out of shape it’s a sign that there are masses present, which means heavenly bodies." Since that day I’ve been convinced that my uncle and his fellow astronomers are some of the most dedicated observers of abstraction there are.

1^st verse (the heroine)

She’s a woman, she’s 35 She’s an artist She’s a musician She’s a publisher too She’s Felicia Atkinson For La Criée she’s created Spoken Word

Refrain

It’s an exhibition It’s a landscape you never get to It’s a sound work/desert island you can stroll about in It’s a silent film hiding unheard-of music It’s a series of sculptures you can activate to no end It’s a game for two with no rules It’s a frieze of distorting mirrors

2^nd verse (for the white room)

There are three big sculptures You can lean on them, go under them They’re rocks trees instruments cacti totems furniture There are also ten sculptures that can fit in your hand That two people can play with sitting at a table You can grab the art, touch it, stroke it There’s the (rocky) desert There are maps with no memory, too, which are big digital prints on aluminium, hung on the wall They’re collages of words and simple shapes, triggers for stories, clues You can almost see yourself in them And then there are coloured shapes growing on the walls

Refrain

It’s an exhibition It’s a landscape you never get to It’s a sound work/desert island you can stroll about in It’s a silent film hiding unheard-of music It’s a series of sculptures you can activate to no end It’s a game for two with no rules

3^rd verse (for the whole space)

There’s a sound track that keeps exhibition hours every day (travel time and dream time) There’s the (Sonora) desert The sound track is sometimes electronic (a modular synthesiser) Sometimes it’s the sound of the California desert Sometimes of the wild islands of Brittany Sometimes samples from audio books It’s a sound track that sings a scattered narrative with no beginning or end or middle and no plot There’s the (miraculous) desert

Refrain

It’s an exhibition It’s a landscape you never get to ....

4^th verse (for the black room)

There’s a silent film (behind a heavy fluid molten-coloured curtain) There are the giant cacti of the Saguaro desert They’re totems sculptures humans trees instruments There’s the desert (listen to it) Felicia is playing for the cacti Felicia makes slow movements for the cacti, sculptor’s movements There’s the desert (look at it) There’s the beauty of the movements Beauty is a decision and an inexplicable desire

Refrain

It’s an exhibition It’s a landscape you never get to ....

5^th verse (the Green Flashes)

Other works spring from the exhibition On May 10th Felicia is inviting the poet and artist Hanne Lippard to speak among the works Litanies melodies timbre range The voice is an instrument The invention of the verbual On May 20th she is inviting the dancer Élise Ladoué to dance slowly amid the exhibition She accompanies her with her sounds, Almost a concert And there’s the book, too, that she’s published with Shelter Press, her publishing house, it’s called Audio Book, at the same time it’s an outline of the exhibition, and of its sources and continuation

Sophie Kaplan, January 2017

The curator is Sophie Kaplan for this exhibition

The entire exhibition is produced by La Criée centre for contemporary art, Rennes with the support of Elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm, the French Institute and the Brittany Region

Meeting

Felicia Atkinson

Saturday 1^st April at 3 pm

Célia Houdart, Le Scribe et un sphinx / The Scribe is a sphinx

the futuristic short story by Célia Houdart about the cycle, While I was also listening [...]