(air whooshing)
(Birds chirping)
(insects chirping)
- This film is naked.
(Birds chirping)
(air whooshing)
(Birds chirping)
(children murmurs)
(Birds chirping)
(air whooshing)
It smell soon.
(air whooshing)
(Birds chirping)
Turn around.
(Birds chirping)
(air whooshing)
The fruits are naked.
(air whooshing)
(dramatic music)
There was hundreds of butterflies
that came by the shoes.
They sought to carry the
shoes up into the air.
Hundreds of them taking the
shoes up down the river.
Down there until we could not see them.
(air whooshing)
It's so warm here.
(air whooshing)
You're inside this body, wider.
It's wet.
(air whooshing)
We found this bird.
(Birds chirping)
(moaning)
The bern are stealing the raspberries.
Swallow this.
(moaning)
- This voice is the
sun touching your face.
Feel the sun in your mouth.
It's so good.
- You swallow the sun?
- The rooms are naked.
- It's so nice.
It feel so good.
- The bird is naked.
(soft violin music)
- This voice is a bird on your hand.
- It's so soft.
- Here.
You're inside the blue.
- The bird came here, one you saw earlier.
It just came back
and went and dropped it out of his mouth,
it spitted out of his beak, this.
Someone might have lost
his iPhone charger.
It just just jumped a few
steps and flew up high.
(moaning)
- The water is naked.
A cloud just fell.
(moaning)
You are in the middle there.
In the middle of these women.
In the image.
Enjoy it.
This image is undressing you.
It's wet.
This image is kissing you.
It licks you.
(people speaking in foreign language)
- I saw a shadow on your face.
This bird is inside your mouth.
You are naked.
It taste sweet and a little bit sour.
- A bit like metal.
Come closer.
Little bird
- Inside the room with us
flying around the room.
The birds are eating the
raspberry from the calm mirrors.
You hold on this image.
(children laughing)
You go inside the image.
Look.
- Hello.
(children laughing)
- Taste it now.
It's so warm.
(air whooshing)
This image touches you.
You drank this image.
This is for you.
(air whooshing)
(drum beats)
This world has kiss.
You lick the skin.
Open.
(air whooshing)
Speak the demon.
(air whooshing)
(fire crackling)
It slaps you.
(gasping)
Hold on tight.
You're falling you can't hold on.
(air whooshing)
(soft chiming music)
(yawning)
(air whooshing)
(birds chirping)
The man that was there earlier,
just disappeared into the room.
That's all that's left of him.
(bright music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
(music playing and birds chirping)
(whistling)
This film is really naked.
This film is alive.
And want to soul everything.
This image eats you.
Now gather all these images.
Gather them up.
This one this one this one
Swallow them in one lot.
Inside you.
Stop breathing now.
(clapping)
- [Interviewer] I don't
know if I can really express
how thrilled I am to have
her here on the stage,
but I'll try throughout the
duration of this conversation.
But I like that,
that to start with that
idea of swallowing,
that idea of the explosion in your mouth.
And Swallow is the title of this piece
that we just saw the video piece.
Do you wanna maybe speak a bit about
why did you chose that title?
- [Laure] A lot of my video,
they want to try to tend
to be more than pixel.
They wanna be, they want they
compete with life as well
or they want to be translating something.
They want to be more than pixels.
They want to be descent.
They want to be the touch.
They want to, can you translate
that with that medium?
Can you swallow a smell?
Can you swallow a sensation?
Can you a swallow an image
and can you gather images and
to enhance the sensation as well?
Or can you provoke a sensation
through gathering of images?
Can you also,
yeah, it's a kind of this,
it's always about comparison as well.
One image is next to another.
Same with raspberries.
If you go a little green raspberry,
you realize it's not as good
as the really good red one.
An image is about this
comparison of moments
of quiet moments to extreme intensity.
In some way that's what I was
trying to translate
with that video, swallowing the welbus.
And it's slightly frustrated
because it's not a bird,
it's just a pixel.
Many pixels next to each other.
They tries to enhance that.
But it was also basically,
I remember when I was
offered to do this piece
was a Max Mara Art Prize
for Women in London.
And at first I was like,
"Oh, why just for woman?"
And then I was like,
"Oh no, that's great."
I can join.
I mean, of course it's sort
of also made me very aware
of my position as a woman artist.
And before I was more,
I just didn't want to see
difference between genders,
but I was kind of naive as well,
but in a good way sometime.
But anyway, when I went there,
they asked what would you
like to do if you go to Italy?
And I was like maybe it
should be this idea of the,
the grandeur you know,
because I'm from the
North of Europe for like,
you know for France, Blendecques,
but I lived in London
for a really long time
where my grandparents live in England
and it's very much a,
this history of the
grandeur of going to Italy
and the cliche of it or
the master of it, you know.
But also just perfect
this idea of between tourism
and the idea of a place,
you know, you go with an idea.
When I filmed the, the woman
who was friends of mine,
which were the residency
and my cousin was around us,
said "Oh, let's go in the water
for just film this scene."
And, but it was actually freezing.
Just pretend you enjoy it.
And the mic, there's a big,
big motto where next to it
and you know, it's all a construct.
Is this producing an idea of something?
You know, and I think with the grandeur,
it was very much visa as well.
This producing the ideal landscape
or you know, in the left Flemish would mix
it with our own landscape
and at this very Italian landscape
into their own landscape and sort of
taking from both worlds.
And that's def--
That was that was,
a kind of start.
And when, when I was in the first time,
I must have took a taxi in my life,
but I got a taxi to the airport
and I felt the sun on my face and I was,
this is it, this is what
I want to translate.
Can I translate into a film,
the feeling of the sun on one space,
you know, and it's, it's not possible,
but you, you play, you translate.
How do you translate an emotion
or the feeling of a sensation
and moments in time.
And this kind of triggered
the whole film I think for me.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. I think this idea of
almost proposing vision
that you talk about
that maybe the film can do,
that's something that your
language does as well.
And these works.
It's you're calling upon the viewer to,
to participate in certain
ways through your language.
It's like you propose an idea for them
and then they have to complete it.
And language is something
that kind of undergirds
a lot of your work.
So when you talk about translation,
you're translating experience,
but you're also thinking about translation
in terms of language and what it does
and how we translate it.
Do you want to speak about that?
- [Laure] Yeah.
I think language was,
I think it was something
that I kind of struggle with.
I never felt I was
particularly good at French
or in English, but I like,
I love that words create images.
I think it's one of the most visual,
writing is one of the most
visual artwork because,
and it's, it's opening too many visions,
which I am totally fascinating.
I've done a lot of work
of managers text on a wall
or signs and I really,
Having it's very it's very powerful.
The, the idea that I don't give an image,
you making it everyone has
its own image of a window,
has its own image of a, of a land seaside
or you know, and it's always and when
of course with mistranslation
and translation.
And I think that's where
I often floats in cause I
Yeah, I think it was language.
That's why I did the art.
I think I said I felt I couldn't
totally tackle it properly.
And, but at the same time
I loved the misunderstanding of it
or the complexity of it.
When I moved to England,
it was really when
this play on word.
There's a piece, I've
done called It, Heat, Hit,
heating it and the heat
of something, you know,
and obvious kind of start to question
the meanings of words and
then adding layers of,
there's another piece I did called Owt,
where I interview curator Michael Kano
talks about moving images in a very
beautiful and academic way.
And I've like
I translate him,
like completely misunderstand him
and it's all a little love story
and the name of miss,
misunderstand the words and
start playing with them.
And that's yeah, that's,
it keeps appearing.
And even in the piece in
that I've done in Venice,
it was between French and English.
And I will tell you a lot of
salad is one of the sentences
that in French you say
"On va vous raconter des salades"
it's like I will tell
you a lot of bullshit,
but not tonight.
Just tell the truth tonight.
- [Interviewer] Well, and you
put that on a tapestry, right?
With a, with an image of salad
We will tell you a lot of salads.
So here, translation
also in our galleries,
you're translating your
experience into film,
into that film that we just saw.
But then you're also then
translating it into tapestry.
Do you want to talk a little
bit about that process
and how the imagery
relates or doesn't relate?
- [Laure] I think in some ways the way,
I mean, this is my grandma's
made this tapestry.
She's I'm from a family of a textile
and she often helps me
with making the tapestries
and this a collage we work together from
and when we translate into tapestry,
but it's, it's layers
of the research I did
before I made the video.
But also for me it's a similar
way of working as editing,
and the some may you know,
it's a nights at the opposite of the image
though it will question what you seeing
or that he had solved
with no priority almost
you know with watercolor
as much that might be
a very large painting
collage next to each other.
And it's, it's about layering
and, and creating a narrative.
And it's also, it was a lot about also
with the, the new new world
we live in with technology
like the past is holding into the future
or the future is holding into the past.
And so the columns are
holding a TV screen,
a Sony one or I don't know.
Panasonic and yeah,
it's about swallowing the
ice cream and this sort of
this a representation of
Italy in some way in the
cliches of it almost.
But I was also looking very much as this
I was telling you earlier this beautiful
I think it's 30, year 30 after Christ.
They, they found this beautiful courtyard,
painted like a paradise,
set up a thing.
It's called Amazon though, how
the golden house in Pompeii.
And that's, I saw that piece in, in Rome
when I was during the residency and,
and I wanted to embrace the viewer
in a similar way to before you enter the,
this, the, the video is almost you,
you gathered by a,
this kind of a
dream factor landscape
as well because this all,
well there was unbalancing nature
but also it's supporting or
it's trying to hold each other.
And when you enter into this,
you being swallowed by the image and,
and of course Swallow
is also quite sexually
connotative it has this breathing is like,
it's, it's a rhythm.
It's a kind of a dial count.
I think we saw this when sound is really,
really present in my work
where sound is really,
is there, is the heartbeat
heartbeat of the film.
It's, it's almost
controlling our own breathing
when we watch and it's
I was suffocating or
you play along with it,
you go along, I don't know.
- [Interviewer] Your work
seems to ride that line
a little bit of control.
You know, there's there's suggestion,
but then there's also
controls kind of coercion.
- [Laure] Yeah it's propaganda,
- [Interviewer] That seduction
- [Laure] It's addiction.
It's, but it's, we're
talking a lot with Younestal
I'm working with at the moment,
he's really into propaganda
art in general, but,
and I think,
of course propaganda depends
how it's used and for what,
and but advertising is
basically a master of it.
I think that if I want as an artist,
can I use images as a propaganda
of a sensation or an emotional trigger?
Something too similar technique of yeah.
Pulling you along into is this also,
I'm going to tell you a little story.
Come along.
Things happen.
You know, it's so, it's, it's,
it's, yeah, it's a language.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. A reoccurring theme
in your Venice installation
was I remember hearing at least once,
if not more, you are like an
insect caught in a flower.
Right.
And and that's something I think about
with your installation work.
There's this kind of desire
to envelop the visitor that seems to
translate into that work.
And you can kind of see it,
like you said here,
this is the original display of this work.
Is that right when you
displayed it for the next day
- [Laure] Yeah this is just
a print and a collage on top.
But I always want really,
really wish I could do a tapestry then.
And then my grandma didn't
have time, she was too busy.
And finally I go ahead to,
to make the tapestry and
it's now here's that.
She's so proud.
- [Interviewer] Well, in your
grandma isn't the only one
you work with, let's see,
so this is, this is, I'm
on the same travel theme.
Travel seems to be a big theme for you
in your work and your uncle.
This is related to your uncle, right?
- [Laure] Yeah. So that's
basically my uncle is using me,
after seeing Swallow and
many of my films like
that we could really create.
So my uncle seeing Swallow is like,
Oh man, we could make
a business out of it.
You know, we couldn't go deep travel inc.
And he decided to create
his travel agency.
We can flip. Yeah.
So this is my uncle's travel
agency, it looks a bit rough.
But there's there's a
few things you recognize
from an other
narrative from my work,
which is,
the living room of my,
I made a piece called
Wantee was Tate Modern,
commissioned me to make a
film about my grandparents
because my granddad is a conceptual artist
in the North of England.
But now it's been years and years
when he's lost because
his last concept was
to dig a tunnel from the
North of England to Africa.
We've had the authority to know about it.
And so you should see the, as the,
the house is just full of mud everywhere.
It's just little hub of gas
where my grandma can still cook.
And you'll see the, the
living room is mud everywhere,
with just one spot,
which is not muddy is
where my grandma sits
and it's full of packet of crisps.
And because now she gets
delivery from Tesco,
she doesn't even go out.
So she's just eating crisps and you know,
this is just total mess.
But anyway, there's a
few hints of the left.
For example, the sculpture there is the,
they were really close
friend of Kurt Schwitters.
That's why actually I
didn't say the beginning,
but the Tate invited me because they knew
my granddad was a friend of
Kurt Schwitters and I said,
okay, it's not because I'm a good artist,
it's just their connection or whatever.
So I was a bit pissed off,
but I made the film and I
I, we got a lot of this sculpture
that he kept giving us
when we came and visit.
And my grandma got so pissed, so annoyed
so many painting and that
she felt it should be useful.
So she repairs the chairs, you know,
and the arms with Kurt Schwitters,
that's a Kurt Schwitters piece.
There's there's some trays at home
for those serving the teas,
which are his early work,
so that she tries to improve it
usually with putting
beaks on it and clouds.
Anyway, so my uncle has decided to bring
the whole family together and,
and propose this idea
of deep travel of him.
We can go for the images maybe,
which visit love hidden
messages under that,
under the tables and a
normal governments inc
that's something that we'd come back.
So it's called deep travel inc.
So it's also the beginning of the work
around the octopus as the writing agent.
Wait for everything to get dusty.
Yeah. So it's easy.
It gets really dusty quickly.
We actually were invited by Miami Basel
to bring it there.
So if you go to Miami, you'll meet
my uncle, he's been
installing the new French--
- [Interviewer] Does it open today?
- [Laure] I think today
or tomorrow, I think.
And that's my grandma's recipe of tea.
So it's tea with a,
always with a bit of gin.
- [Interviewer] So if you go to Miami
you can taste her grandma's tea.
If they go to Miami, they
can taste your grandma's tea.
- [Laure] Yeah if you go
there you'd be welcome.
They might ask you to take
a seat and wait for a bit.
Sometimes they forget people
and just go up and you might
wait for a long, I don't know.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of
reminiscence with some poetry
my grandma's made,
just a lot of little wink to our family
and know how we could take you deeper
and that's an advert that my uncle
did from my own video
is just cut and paste anything.
Services is deep
traveling, you can be this.
Yeah, you could be there.
- [Interviewer] Of course
we're hearing the layering of
the same sort of breathing
that we hear in Swallow.
And this is something that I
think is really interesting
is how there are reoccurring
motifs in your work.
There are things that pop
up from piece to piece.
It's like you're using montage and collage
in your work itself,
but then across works.
So it's like your whole is,
is fodder for new collages.
- [Laure] Yeah I think it's
definitely this idea of,
it's not an idea, but it's like how,
what's the meaning of an image
or an image can always
have enough meaning.
And a week, re-associated though,
there's always a narrative
between all the pieces
as you saw between the tapestry,
This is deep travel inc.
It's very intensive,
promotional video.
But yeah, so it's this is,
this wink between the work
has been important for me.
It's this one organic
process to family can take,
use my work, I can use my family.
It's, I can use my history,
add another history to it.
And I, I love this idea of
losing a bit of control.
We might,
It might take another turn.
Whoever uses air touches it.
- [Interviewer] There's also an element
I've heard you talk about
the kind of travel and this kind of work
as an escapism to a certain extent.
Do you want to talk about that at all?
I mean, what does escapism, why,
why is that appealing to you?
Why are you,
why is that something that is such a
recurring theme in your work? Perhaps?
- [Laure] So that's a house,
you could win if you go deep with us,
You could win it,
It's subconscious.
It's, it's, I made this from a video
How to Make Money Religiously,
which was a a video.
I made it for the new museum in New York.
Yeah, the, the wait, what was your,
- [Interviewer] Oh, I just was asking you
to talk a little bit about
escapism because there is
this element of fantasy
to your work or this element of
the calling upon
imagination in a way that,
you know, maybe we think of a
fiction operating or movies.
There's something about how
you, you ask us, you propose
for us the opportunity to imagine
that we're somewhere that we're not,
- [Laure] Yeah.
I mean,
it's escapism almost to connect more
to everything is kind of
a escapism from the norm.
Maybe to be even more
connected to the norm.
Or even more, everything's becoming more
important as well.
Or could we become this flow?
Could we escape ourself by
becoming something else?
So could we escape through an image care
going further into another state?
And it's kind of almost a,
Oh, like my grandad's
desire to escape through
as a conceptual piece to,
to the Vista Knoll to,
to Africa was or desire
to go further and deeper.
And I think that's deeply in humans nature
to keep searching and,
and and provoking our brains
and provoking the world
we live in I guess.
And actually I've,
I brought you with this vegetable
because you wouldn't believe it is.
I've been
since my granddaddy's is
not back for many years now.
I've been going to church regularly
and asking for a sign, you know,
a sign of God, where's granddad and,
and this morning I woke
up in my hotel in Toronto
and you wouldn't believe it.
These vegetables were on my bed
and maybe we can play the video.
So you get,
These are the, these there,
these are the vegetable
that fell from the sky the other day.
In and my bedroom, I was just sleeping
and suddenly I woke up
and there's four vegetables
was one,
the lemon,
the onion,
tomato,
and the carrot,
they were all there in
front of me on my bed.
I was sleeping really well, like you know,
like every night I was like
and I woke up, this was there.
I couldn't believe it.
I thought, what, what is it,
how can this vegetable be there on my bed?
And I realize I've been, I look up,
I looked at the ceiling just above my bed
and there was four perfect shape,
like carrot shape, tomato shape
onions, lemon
All in the ceiling perfect.
Like almost like a carton.
Just totally perfect.
Just the in front, above me
And I thought, no,
that can't be it
I couldn't believe it,
but I was like, that's it.
It's a sign of God.
I couldn't believe this is a sign of God.
I was like, finally, finally
my whole life and like,
you know, I've been
looking for a sign of God
and here it was.
I couldn't believe it.
I woke up my granddad next door.
I said hey Granddad, look
at this vegetable was one.
Look there.
It must have been a sign of God,
They fall from the sky on my bed.
He was "oh leave me alone I'm working"
then, "you know I'm busy. Never
disturb me when I'm working"
you know, and I know
any way what he's doing,
you smashed the door and
say, go into your stuff.
Stop bothering with me with little things.
And I had before, but still
what in my hand, I was like,
I was like, I oh, what can I do?
And though Savannah, I went to the priest,
I run,
I was really early and the
priest was still in his pajamas.
Look what I found on my bed
and I showed him the holes in my ceiling.
It's nothing to do with God.
Say something that they've
fallen from a plane
or from something.
This is a sign of God.
I've been fucking looking
for a sign of God.
What's up? It's fucking twisted.
I don't fucking understand anything
we don't fucking understand.
Do I should try my mind or something.
You know, like I've, I've, I've,
I'm going to keep them as, as a religion.
That's why they're there,
that's best, the best,
the actual vegetables
that's the four them, you know,
was that the four vegetable
that fell on my bed
and if you came to my room,
you would see the perfect
holes are still there
and I get bit wet these days, you know,
and I get a bit, it's
raining and it's not great,
but you know, I, I've, I
want to keep it as a sign.
Know I will, I will send it to the Pope
or something in Italy.
You know, maybe, maybe he will believe me
fucking priest.
- [Interviewer] That
must've been shocking.
- [Laure] Yeah.
- [Interviewer] I mean, do
these sorts of mystical events
happen to you often?
- [Laure] Well, it's happened sometime.
You know, there's things you don't believe
could happen and they happen.
Yeah, so I can't believe
these other vegetables
and I brought them because I thought you
You have to see them Anna.
You can even test them and you'll
see they're actual vegetable,
and not plastic you know,
they, they an actual onion, of tomato,
the lemon smells of
lemon, it's real carrot.
But yeah, it's, yeah, it happens,
but it's also obvious.
Yeah.
And the extension of a
film into a physical space
and the the, the, the physical becoming,
Yeah.
See, they're real,
and, we need to send
them to the Pope later.
- [Interviewer] You need
to use all of your senses
while you're here.
Well, and you said even an extension
into the physical space.
I mean, scale obviously is
something you play with.
- [Laure] Yeah I'm really upset,
like we didn't have a
big enough camera of it.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. We should have had
a larger screen too.
I mean, maybe we could
have shown your whole body.
- [Laure] It's a shame really.
- [Interviewer] Total shame.
So I'm wondering if we
should talk about Venice
cause magic is something that occurs
in your work in Venice too.
There is this sense of
kind of the magical,
this sense of the mystical
that punctuates that video.
- [Laure] It's the idea of relics as well
I think with art practice in some ways
it's very close to a,
I'm really attached to,
that everything has its importance
and this glass could be an artwork
or is a relic of a time you drank from it.
When you said those few words,
so you know,
and and that's why the
mystical comes in a bit.
This idea of as well the
museum being this new church
as well though,
where we
position our life,
we get kind of,
it's also a place for
yeah,
positioning your, the way we do things.
We, I think we go a bit less to church
but some of us still do.
And I grew up in a very
Catholic upbringing
where there's a lot of
these narratives of belief
and I'm interested how
in the art context
it's completely explaining
the same thing as well.
And that work is mystified
is if it's entered here it has
it will be taken care of,
it will be it will live through
some history but it
might also be forgotten
and stuck in a basement in a storage.
There's a piece I made actually,
which is my hands similar to this piece
who would talk to another artwork
in skates called tech has,
don't worry, when they all forget you
I'll be here for you don't worry,
I'll broad it then
and blow the dust out of you,
you know, don't worry if you,
even if you're in a little storage.
This idea of the object
becoming very aware
of its own presence and
also its situation where
it will be kept
or where you, society decide to take it
is definitely important in the practice
And kind of relics
it's a proof that it existed as well.
In the same way when I
create this environment,
like in Venice, it's
you sat on the seat of
the idea of the facteur cheval.
And a scene when I film in Safir France,
you, you become a protagonist as a viewer.
You, you, you are the carpet.
You are, you are swallowed
by the octopus or,
But yeah.
- [Interviewer] And even you're,
in some ways made a protagonist
by being chosen to
represent France and Venice.
Right. There is something like,
you've been put in a position
as the artist selected to do the pavilion.
Did you know immediately
that you wanted to reroute
the traffic into the,
into the pavilion?
- [Laure] Yeah, I mean that's
was straight away for show.
I, I knew I want,
I think it's a,
it's a, I feel like wanting to,
I mean having, when I
was in London as well,
you kind of, I see myself as an immigrant
same as
not really belonging to,
I mean I'm belonged to many cultures,
especially I guess European culture
because that's where I grew up.
But I, this idea of not specialty,
always entering for the main door.
You know, when my practice grew,
I grew slowly from finding my ways in,
within a situation that,
and I wanted if I, you know,
always invited through the main door
and that you have to find your way.
And it's also, this
was very physical about
because the, the whole project
ideally you'd go deeper to
the back of this building.
So when you arrive at the pavilion, you,
you see this and you have a some mists.
So you realize, almost
it's a bit lost in a cloud,
but it's it's also if
you've been to Venice,
it's on on the little hill
so it has this kind of
colonial history as well
with a certain pavilion which are, have.
Any way so I think it
was very important for me
that we need to find a
different way to enter,
and this pavilion,
but also the main one of the
subject of this piece was to,
to be a kind of an octopus.
Going back to the depths,
the origin almost of the world and,
our human interaction with it.
But almost like it's an
octopus who goes inside
or under rock and hides in, you know,
and, and then you protect it
and then you could see where
and it's, and it's this voyage,
it was really about
this trip going through.
So it was a mess.
The idea is I met some
people along the way,
so it was about nine months ago.
My uncle of course,
wanted to join, but we,
we started from Paris to the
North of France where I'm from
and trying to touch the,
the landscape, the people.
And slowly we went in a
tiny car from Nanterre,
which is a suburb of Paris
with beautiful towers,
which are called the cloud towers.
And there, we took a
car, we were five or six.
We arrive in, in a Hobart
where we went to a little cafe
and in that cafe there was a magician,
which the tables start to levitate.
And so the whole thing was about,
this escape or this
travel about connecting,
touching things.
And there was this also le terrile,
this a coal mine, which is
where I'm from, the big Terrile.
And there was a by chance we pass by
and there was a woman singing in Arabic
on top of of the Hill.
So it was all things that happen.
And then there,
we were, the car broke
down so we had to take
we got some horses and we
galloped all the way to
the facteur cheval, who's this incredible
place once I,
It's a post man who
built his dream palace.
And I'm, I'm, I love
I love this deep desire
to create, you know,
and this guy just
collected stone every day
as he was posting letters
and built his ideal palace
and we arrived at night and
we filmed a bit in this space.
And then when that, in the morning
they was this fanfare
and brass band fair,
singing Italian overall,
doo doo, doo, doo, doo, doo doo.
Then went to Marseilles and
swim all the way to Venice
and we found the pavilion
and we sort of enter it from the back.
And inside that.
Yeah, actually I was,
that's another history is like,
I was also trying to dig
a tunnel to reconnect
to connect with Britain, which
is next door for, for Brexit.
I'm like, come on, we need to.
We're not trying, we didn't
do much on from their sides.
I was a bit--
- [Interviewer] I think that's
a good point that, you know,
escapist art doesn't mean
that it's not political.
There can be politics and escapism.
- [Laure] Yes, definitely.
Politics in the image.
I've made a lot of works,
which I created some tracks which also
involve musician peaceful Brexit as well.
Kill the from the French perspective stay.
We've, the party's not over
and it's it's about you
think your heels are better.
There's some good it,
it's, it's a nice track.
We worked and here,
but we did halfway
and we followed the British
have to dig as well a bit.
- [Interviewer] So they
did they let you down?
Not yet?
- [Laure] Not yet. They
almost were as you go.
So that was the entrance
where I was digging.
So you're right for kind of
muddy path into upstairs,
which is as in peace where
glass and resin fossilized
almost like, yeah, it's between,
it's kind of glamorous.
It's, it's, it's a bad cell.
So the, of course the canals
and and what's happening with
acquired or when I went
on the last opening
was quite emotional
because I think that piece
was really dealing with or
over consumerism as well.
But also the kind of beauty
of the clash of things
that we add to VCs.
The salads when we were going
to tell you a lot of salads,
they turned the hardest glass fair.
And this is when you
entered the next room.
It's the reminiscence of kind of
the facteur cheval
and you're allowed to sit on the seats
and watch the film
which is about 27 minutes.
- [Interviewer] Well, in
earlier when you were describing
kind of the experience of watching
especially a projected film
and kind of having the light
wash over you as a visitor,
but then also the collective
experience of watching a film.
That's something I really
felt when I was in here.
I really felt the presence of the people
around me who are watching it with me.
- [Laure] Yeah. I think what
I love with moving images
is that it's collective, you
know, we feel each other,
this is a piece I made
also called a Monologue
is like imagine the person next
to you next to you is naked,
but it's this really collective
awareness of one another.
And within the space
there was also the people
I met along the way.
There was a school teacher,
there was a priest,
there was a dance, a musician,
what do you call someone
who puts his limb,
- [Interviewer] Like an Acrobat maybe?
- [Laure] And there was an Acrobat.
There was also an octopus character.
There was as well.
Yeah, it's also about mixed generation.
I was very, was very important for me,
like the world is and most separate
and I really want it that we,
we are all together and,
and arrived there and they were,
most of them, quite a lot
of the person I've met,
there was a magician as well.
If they came to to,
to Venice and they were part of the,
of the piece I guess survey,
they would be around
sometimes singing to the film
or sometimes correcting film,
"Obviously this is not right.
It didn't happen like that."
She could, she kept the good beat.
So this is one of the character Bama
who is sings to the image at some point.
So sometimes it just smoking outside,
but I really liked the fact that you,
you, you might have a
conversation with them after
or you might just see them smoking.
And just to have this again,
proof of, you know, it's
again a kind of release of a
narrative or history.
Can it carry on expanding?
- [Interviewer] Yeah. As I
exited the pavilion, Nico,
I think that's who was there.
He was out front and he
was, he had music playing
and he was instructing
or, or kind of helping
two young boys to feel the music.
So there was in the front
where you would normally
enter the French pavilion.
There was a sort of dance lesson going on
and it was one of the
people who we had just seen
in the work.
And that felt really magical.
It felt very joyful, very magical.
Everybody was kind of
standing around watching
these two little boys jam with Nico.
- [Laure] Yeah and it's not controlled.
I really wanted them to be,
to be themselves or carry on
the narrative of the film,
and the last weekend, which was just a,
this weekend, we were all
there and there was really
extreme human moments where
we lived so much in the
live, the pavilion and the audience.
And even the wardens of the room
say just everyone.
We were just so in sync.
It was so special to
feel like it's a trip,
a physical trip to an exhibition
to an exchange can be that
kind of depth and they will.
So at the end
it was funny cause they've
watched a film so many times,
but when it closed, we went off to dinner
and they put the film once more.
It's was like you've
done it for six months.
Anyway, this this is a pigeon
smoking cigarette though.
Thinking about it that's on the sandbar.
That's a big tapestry as well.
We produced with my grandma that the truth
- [Interviewer] And there were
two different ways to exit
and they were very different right there.
I mean there was some
difference to them. So
It was almost like you chose
your way out too.
- [Laure] It was two different.
I mean, of course it's
silly to talk about a setup
because it's very physical, but you,
you, you have to touch the
walls as you're in darkness,
you don't know where to go.
This is the, the table from the Holbart
in the North of France where
things are levitating and narrate,
the objects starts to narrate it.
To narrate the story as well.
Yeah, you could choose the left
and exit the left tentacle
and the whole idea was.
the, I mean there's not,
again, it's not an idea,
but the feeling was that we,
each character was a
tentacle of the octopus
and when we then touched around
to exchange with the world,
but also as an audience,
you could become a tentacle.
What I love with the
symbolic of the octopus
is that its brain and
the brain of the tentacle
is in its, and its, it's in the tentacles.
It's very very direct brain.
It doesn't have, memory,
doesn't stall the dates.
It's really intelligent
and that it's very direct.
So I wanted a direct this
idea of direct exchange
and and with that we were, yeah,
we all could be a tentacles .
And that was the end of a dream.
When the aqualta came up,
the fish are going all wonky in the
frame water.
- [Interviewer] So what do you think?
Should we invite some questions?
- [Laure] Yes, I bought,
I also want you to,
I'm trying to use my origins.
- [Interviewer] How are
you going to use them?
- [Laure] I'd like to to go down a line.
I'd love everyone could scream at the end.
You first.
- [Interviewer] Do you
want that to happen now?
Or after questions.
- [Laure] If you could
say, if you could say,
we are the many tentacles
we will feel you and swallow you,
swallow it all
Would you be ready to do that?
- [Interviewer] Did you get that?
- [Laure] We will feel you and swallow.
- [Interviewer] We will
feel you and swallow you.
You are the, we are the many tentacles.
- [Laure] Okay. Ready?
One, two, three. Very loud.
- [Audience] We are the many tentacles.
We will feel you and swallow you.
- [Laure] Thank you.
- [Interviewer] That was very well done.
- [Laure] I'll send it to
you, I'm very very happy.
- [Interviewer] So does
anybody have a question?
- [Female Voice] This continues
to the question of language
and your use of language.
I was wondering if if
You have done versions
of the Swallow in French
or how it would translate in Italian,
or Arabic or Russian and if
it would have the same impact
as it is in English and,
and also the use of the body
as opposed to female bodies.
Have you played with the
idea of nude male bodies
and how that would feed into this
sense of openness and spreading
and it's just a very sort
of liquid flow into Swallow.
- [Laure] Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.
There is two question in one was good.
Yeah. Yeah.
- [Interviewer] At least
they were questions.
- [Laure] And in terms of,
I think that was a bigger,
yeah, it was a big issue when I was asked
to do the French pavilion because I've,
I haven't lived in France for a long time.
Like it was 20 years or more, you know,
say I'm, I can't even,
I'm terrible at my emails.
And so I was like,
Oh my God, I need to write
to Minister of Culture
or the French Minister,
oh it's full of mistakes.
It's not, it's I need to
get my own code to correct.
And then that takes a long time.
But I think this idea translating, I,
I think it's always a play within it,
but I think it will
become a piece each time.
You know, I can't just
translate a subtitle having,
it has to be really
embraced in the product,
in the protection of it.
I've been asked in the past to do,
to put translation and I
prefer if it's on paper
almost you get, you can read
what it means before, after,
but not so much translated on the,
on the actual image.
But for Venice for example,
it was really a piece
which was a Frano-English.
So it was really a day to two.
There was half a half,
I think in the dialogue,
which were French and English.
And there's always a
mistranslation underneath.
So the, if you read a say,
I would say every night's gone gone.
It was about the Notre
Dame actually on the,
the opening just before it
had burnt, and a few now,
maybe a week before.
So it was a, there's a moment
in the film where it's like
it was about the,
the teacher tells us that he talks about
an adult animal who's disappeared,
who's gone from the planet.
And and when you also put
the piece I put
Notre Dame and they say,
it's gone gone gone,
And then underneath in
France is gum gum, gum means
Rubber, rubber, you know,
so it's kind of play,
it's definitely, it's right.
It's, it's kind of, yeah.
Put it has to enter the work basically.
When, if I, and in Italian it's,
I would have to, yeah, I don't know.
Yes, but it's in Italian.
It's just like an ice cream
- [Interviewer] Well yeah and
there seems to be an element
of confounding expectations.
Even the title of your work in Venice,
Deep See Blue Surrounding You.
The sea isn't S-E-A. It's S-E-E. Yeah.
- [Laure] Yes. It's
hopefully it's deep seen,
deep connecting.
Not just at the sea.
Yeah, there's the, it's, I
think it's always at play
with where, with the situation
and when I went to Italy
was definitely conscious,
but my work is predominantly in English
with a very strong French
accent, but I can't help it.
It's there.
And as I was saying, I enjoy,
I use my voice a lot because
it's extremely practical.
It's always there. I
don't need to book her.
She's here, she can
record when she wishes.
- [Interviewer] Plus you have
that perfect voice for it.
It's so, it's like A-S-M-R, you know,
it's like it's a triggering
and there's that whisper that you use.
You've trained yourself.
- [Laure] Yeah but I think
everyone could do it.
This was very practical,
you know, it's bad.
It's cheap as well too.
- [Male Voice] Yeah. At
the biennale, your chairs
were not ordinary chairs
that people would sit in
to watch the video.
I'm wondering why you use,
you've constructed chairs
especially for that.
- [Laure] But if that was,
I mean it's, if they
were extremely connected
to a sequence in the film,
which is the sequence
of the facteur cheval
which is the, the man
who built his own palace
from the stones I was talking about.
So it has the same very,
very close aesthetic
of his palace in terms of yeah.
And it was like almost, I wanted
the voice chest to almost.
it came out of the carpet so the carpet
was printed as elevated.
They would just point of a palace.
Almost the chairs became
the top of the palace.
You could sit down and as if,
I mean as if it been swallowed and
it's floating just on the surface.
And I mean to do with
chairs was important.
This was to make you
You, you, when was the burner,
You, you just speak, you,
you are as much a, the chair,
as the film, you, you
positioning your body
in a different way of as one way
it was a horse riding a cowboy.
You can, you know, you just,
you suddenly you're aware of your position
in this space and you
become kind of a protag--
protagonist of kind of
one of the characters.
And you, if you see the film,
is that sequence at facteur cheval is the,
the group is in the dark at night
and they gather and talk
and it could be the audience
as well gathering and
feeling things together.
So that's how it came.
- [Female Voice] So I
apologize, I came a little later
and I didn't hear the introduction
and I'm not familiar with your work.
But everything you talk about
reminds me of a lot of situations.
I mean, you're creating
situations, it seems all the time.
That's an overriding principle.
I'm curious to know to what extent
do you deliberate prepare, take notes
or is it very important for
you to sort of experience
something and translate it instantly
into the situation that you create?
Like the pathway from England to Venice
that you described earlier.
And then the second question was,
what, who is the uncle and what's his part
in the creation of the situation
in Venice, for example?
- [Laure] So first part--
- [Female Voice] The situations.
- [Laure] I'm a bit like an octopus
and I don't have much memory
The situation. Yeah.
I think I like to be quite
reactive to a situation yet too.
But it's planned, but we
fill a lot of those open,
you know, like, let's hope
we might meet a magician.
We might even
plan it a bit that it's there,
you know, but also let
for example in the Hobart where I'm from,
it was it's, it's a very highly,
it's, it was the end of textile industries
so it's a very poor part of France.
And when we were in that cafe,
which is cafe De Loperare,
which is run by
Moroccans
at first they were, we were
a bit wary of each other
and you know, slowly he was like,
can we all be in filming cheval
and at the end we start to
completely play together.
And the magician made them disappear,
like "hypey, endo, Canton."
And then when I do this, you come up
and they start playing with each other.
And then suddenly the whole
area around the Hobart
were all by the window
looking at the magicians.
And it was kind of a
situation that you create
a little situation when
let things roll around
and start hopefully playing
together with that situation.
So that,
that's when I work with people
that's what happened and,
but even myself,
if I just go and yes,
I take an Apple and I might have an idea,
it needs to feel sour or
it needs to feel sweet or,
but it's again, it's like
trying different things with it.
So yeah, it's,
I think it's very important
to how often I have a,
I definitely have a
sense like with Swallow,
I wanted to translate the sun on the face.
So, you know, basic kind
of beginning of a concept
but then it's by letting it
cook can evolve.
Whoever editing or filming or, yeah.
And then my tentacle
forgot the second question.
- [Interviewer] Oh about your uncle.
- [Laure] Oh my uncle.
- [Interviewer] Was he involved in Venice?
- [Laure] Oh god he's just everywhere.
Luckily he's not here tonight
cause I'd not be talking.
- [Interviewer] Is he in Miami?
- [Laure] Yes.
He's just, he's just happy to hang around
and use some of the work
and tried to make business.
- [Interviewer] It's the family business?
- [Laure] But it's not very successful.
We know his name. He may be the place.
Yeah. It's just part of
the complexity of a family.
You have different people.
Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Did he go to Venice?
- [Laure] Yeah. I mean he managed
to find the horses for us,
which was quite useful
when the car broke down.
But if not, he was just
hanging around a bit.
- [Interviewer] I mean
he is a travel agent.
- [Laure] So he's not very practical.
He's always like you could go deeper.
Yeah but we're trying to get to Venice.
Yeah. I mean it's like,
yeah, it's just there.
Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Well thank you
all for coming out tonight.
- [Laure] Thank you.
- [Interviewer] It was a joy
to experience this with you.
