The surrealistic transformations become a logical extension of the magnificent strangeness of the landscapes. These places known for the absence of any form of life on huge distances undergo a symbolic metamorphosis that provides them an internal abstract form of life. It is a geographical, mineral, colossal kind of life, based on elements which are extremely inhospitable to biological existence.
The choice of this location is essential: the region surrounding the village of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile is a unique source of landscapes, both majestic and strange, on the edge of visual abstraction.
But these sublime landscapes keep traces of a dark past: areas covered with landmines and ancient political prisons in the middle of the driest desert in the world. These hidden dangers and gloomy places add a layer of anxiety : the environment is injured. The human element appears briefly in the video: we see the traces of human presence being erased by a devouring nature.
By creating mental landscapes halfway between photographic research and experimental animation, this work depicts a dreamlike world, a vision hidden in a secret dimension of our reality. By mixing poetic observation of a unique place and subtle transformations of perception, this project attempts to reveal the symbolic power of geography and the slightly visible, but destructive, impact of mankind.
By the means of a very direct approach of primordial elements: sun, earth (mountains and desert), water (high altitude lakes) and mineral (salt) I want to build my film on a basis of high visual and symbolic purity. The data is further processed and modified to depict a strange lifeform within the image: levitation, breathing earth, impossible water movements, scars and injuries of a giant being … The landscape creates a subtle and enigmatic choreography, it quietly communicates and becomes an autonomous entity. I want to transform into images the language of nature, of the infinite spaces of the desert and the Andes: they speak using the shape of mountains, the form of the clouds, waves, eruptions, sand movements…