Guillemette D is a french wanderer who's trying to study art and photography. She is currently doing an Erasmus in Vilnius, Lithuania, but basically studies in Bruxelles, Belgium. Her family house is somewhere in the countryside in the West part of France.

ABOUT THE SUZETTS :

Before digging into deep talk, let's start with some images.
As far as you remember, what was the first image that stroke you? And then growing up, which was the First Movie/Play/serie that had a striking aesthetic ?

In the film 'Neverending Story' there is this scene where the ground breaks up and he has to overcome the rift, and another one where his horse drowns in the moor. When watching this as a child I was deeply afraid. These scenes in the TV were so much more real than the sofa I was crouching on.
This was probably the first time I consciously encountered the feeling of being sucked in by fiction.
I cannot show the full image or a trailer, because that's not able to reproduce the feeling I had back then.

A film that opened something in terms of aesthetic is Suspiria by Dario Argento. I saw it not long ago, maybe two years ago.
The people making it succeeded in creating a fascinating visual language by using extremely artificial light, scenery, and music, while still following a narrative story.
So somehow it is the opposite to what struck me about Neverending Story - this film creates rather a distance between the viewer and the story, but within this void so much happens

Funily enough my striking image involves a white Horse too! It was this huge poster hanging in my class when I was 5, A white horse in the dimension almost of a real size ( well for a five year old) was running towards us out of a river. At the time my favorite book was about a wild Camargue Horse Crin blanc, and during class, staring at the picture was projecting me so deeply into this wide panel and I could really feelmy thoughts! Great memories

Definitely a movie I'd like to see. Also, I don't know much about Scenography, but for me it utterly relates to light games, artificial ones ( because it happens on a stage and therefore does not acces sun/moon light), and turning their aura to the right direction, with the right intensity, to create the atmosphere you are seeking... Even though it can easlily look cliché... Don't you think so ?

Susanne Brendel studies Set and Costume Design and Photography at State Academy of Art Stuttgart, Germany.
Currently she is living in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The movie that shown me all the possibilities you have with a simple camera would be Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky, maybe because before this one I had only seen bad movies! However, the one I would like to talk to you about is Le Testament D'Orphée by jean Cocteau. First, because I admire Jean Cocteau as an artist for his writings, his drawings, and his films. Poetry is everywhere in this movie, language is given a great place and not just being a mean for expression. It is the whole matter and the crafty strange aesthetic created by the special effects of that time, the low quality of the image, the exageration of sounds and expression on actors faces, all these elements marry perfectly, in total adequation with the subject. So great that it gave me nightmares for a month after I have seen it! When an image haunts your dreams that way, it must have something genius.

And nowadays, what do you watch? When nothing else helps?

Nowadays, when nothing helps, far from any poetic subtel old french movie, I like to go on a demon hunt with the Halliwell Sisters. Charmed is one great show from the 90's, and by great I mean : Perfect outfits, smooth and kitschy generic, obvious Hollywoodian propaganda for the "good life" implying success at work and in personal life, getting married, having children, staying away from bad men. Demons always want to rule the word for a reason or another and their greed is never rewarded.

And apparently it is still haunting you today!
How you talk about the quality of "cheap", crafty effects reminds me of the way you approach your work. e.g. the big eye painted on cardboard you were holding up to surveillance cameras recently, or the way you just try out effects on photoshop onto pictures of your face

A show full of stereotypes and evil patriarchal systems! How come you as an emancipated artsy 21st century person still enjoy watching it?

Let's move on to own projects. First, fictive ones. I know you hate the White Cube. Why? Where would you like to make an exhibition instead?

***HERE IS THE NOTES I WROTE DOWN FROM HOW OUR CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS WENT***
I hate is a very strong word, and I do frequent so-to-say white cubes so we could not say I completely reject it, but for sure I feel like in a hospital, antiseptic. It makes me feel like dirt in there. Feels confusing, oppressive and stressful.
ike to rather in a whole city. a small industrial city, abandoned harbors who have lost their aim
using them as walls, just as they are, not especially street art, but
protect them from being erased
-> still change, but not destroy, not flattened down for capitalistic reasons. Take what is already there. make a starting point for new population flow, put eyes on it. Art would be the only reason to visit, not tourism, not labour, but art.

Would you invite people to create work for this, or exhibit already famous work to draw attention?

I’d like to have pieces made for that occasion. They would definitely echoe the projects of some artist I like, for example Gordon Matta-Clark, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. If I could invite some artists like Francis Alys
Also there would be graffiti artists, some sound artists, actually everyone that implies a relationship with space and occupying it!

Do you have any specific city in mind?

I am thinking of seaside towns, especially in West France or the United Kingdom. For example Saint Nazaire in Brittany, which was destroyed in WW2 and which former military harbor was still visible until some years ago. It is directly next to the town where my boarding school was, so I used to go there sometimes. I always felt a bit weird there, which is why I would like to appropriate this place by a project like this.

Seems like your artistic interests are often connected to your living circumstances. Can you tell me more about your relationship of work and life?

CIGARETTE BREAK

Some habits die hard!
What's your "escape-show" ? **is this an expression?**

i don’t know. i refuse to think in generations. maybe erase generations. we are able to think of parallelism in terms of spaces, why not in terms of time as well. we are a mix of middle age and renaissance, but refusing to accept that. maybe facing that the things we think are new aren’t and then built on that. Find a different, new New instead.
But making something out of that vague thoughts is difficult. I feel very limited: stuck in visuals. the brain is already somewhere or it has glimpsed the possibility to be somewhere but the eye is slow. in some way we all wear glasses and are afraid to put them off.
the goal would be to sort anew and feel less special.
thats the possibility of art but i don’t know how this can look like.
maybe its about erasing old contradictions and establishing new ones

what do you think your vision of art could provide to our generation? how do you want to participate?

when starting to DO something, what kind of sketches do you make ?

i write down keywords, collect images, sometimes make short videos or collages. but mainly it's putting together thoughts in words.
i collect, collect, collect for too long before visualizing

Very generic imagery indeed! It's interesting though that the kind of imagery you hate the most is the one you want to work with!

I can easily imagine you being a curator! If you had a big opportunity of curating a double retrospective, who would be the two artists represented ?

G: I also experienced such a weird use of a stage. A Placebo concert in a Stadium called Fort Canning Park ,where some people get canned for bad behaviour

it would be an architect and a band. Andrea Palladio's "Teatro Olympico" with Suicide's music. the first and the last of the era of romance.

i see. no need for words here

You do accord a lot of time to research before giving form to you idea. Could we say it is your own methodology ? Words, Image, Links

where do you seek materials for your studies mostly ?

u like extreme?

What is your secret?

" I am convinced of one thing,
Talent does not exist, talent is to have the will to do something. I believe that a man who really craves a lobster right now, is right now gifted to eat this lobster, and to enjoy it properly, to savor it properly.

G: Maybe a book feels more precious, and so you want to give it more attention than the internet.

G: That reminds me of the concert Pink Floyd did in Pompeii.

But mainly doing. Doing it It is something I don't apply actually but I think giving body to your ideas and thought

Maybe is "artist" is the craftman that sews elements and subjects together so
If he stops DOING does he make any sense anymore?

Actually it is a kind of pretending, not like earlier the Theatre Performance imagery pretends to much, be pretend that this little observation is major and bother giving life to it. 
Start it

Torture Your Brain to Death Until it Imploses.
Then stop everything,
regret,
try again.

Yes, the valuability of the physical object

yes, we could say that. I really like thinking

AND THEN ??

I DONT KNOW !!

IS OUR AESTHETIC GENERIC HERE OR IS IT OKAY

DO YOU FEEL SUCKED IN OUR FICTION ?

We see here again your deep interest for Stage! I have seen you know a lot about Opera, so it is a very personal project you are sharing with us tonight, thank you

pretending more in the sense of detaching?

Even if I know your point of view is we should definitely separate the artist from his work, as far as I am concerned I'm still struggling with this question.

And actually maybe that is what one should do , separating himself from his work in order to receive critics in a positive way. Because that is the whole thing with producing,

It is giving shape to your ideas and opinion and therefore opening a window on what's happening inside of you and how it happens to any kind of audience.
Which makes you very vulnerable. I'm deeply afraid of people's eyes.

what about the idea of brooding something inside of you for a long time?

my laptop is physical, too

How do you feel about a project once it's done ?

Seriously? Nothing is ever finished!
Even if I have a full portfolio and already presented pieces, participated in festivals and exhibitions,
Always a little something that could be added or changed
Not secure
nothing convincing
it's like learning lithuanian

You had your break. So now, please elaborate.

(...)

I don't know what Art is,
I don't know of any Artists,
I know of people working on something with great passion and energy."

I DONT KNOW !!

story of my life...! I think we both have something to say about this, I'll speak my mind a little further down because, first, I would like to ask you,

Shame ?
Exhaustion?
Timidity?

You emphasize the importance of "doing", so I am very curious to know:

What drives you?

It did actually! I am also enjoying much more free time to read a to flip through all the books that are available. I discovered this review about Poetry mainly but any kind, and it also treat contemporary philosophie, art, it's called The White Review.
Also I'm trying to really work with the environment I am into. Being here in Vilnius implies reacting to elements I am not used to; evolving in unknown space, you see everything with new eyes and it is interesting to realise what you've noticed first. I was stroke by the multiples bird houses hanging everywhere, the multiples surveillance cameras, and the way the city was build with long fronts along the street, then behind every door is a mini plaza with few houses, buildings, stairs leading under the sidewalk stairs going up the roof. A whole life is happening that is hidden from the street.

Here in Vilnius i discovered working in reading rooms.
Because we don't have studio space in the academy, and there are a lot of good libraries/reading rooms all over town. I can concentrate better when reading a book than when looking at my laptop

What I meant is,
Of course my habits adapted because my practice adapted, or at least I try to have a secular point of view,
As a new comer here.
Maybe.

Can you show some views of your portfolio?

Treu ihr sein für alle Tage?

I do emphasize the act of doing, also because I don't produce so much, I brood, a long, long time. Somehow what drives me is the idea that one day I will have accumulated enough experiments and knowledge to make a project that will just resonate perfectly
and
be solid enough to support the weight of time, resist any statism without loosing it's essence in every metamorphosis it would go trhough. And of course, I would be understood by everyone

if you consider that the artist is the one that weaves links between confused element of our existences , that end up making new sense, and you wanna weave.

Apocalypse is always happening.

I DONT KNOW !!

I can only agree with your opinion on the role of the artist nowadays. Creating a new language, new senses, has always happened inside the art scene. It's a shame when the language gets to elitist and speaks only for one audience, it feels like the maker would be relucant to share his discoveries...

Yes exactly. It could look cliché but in this case doesn't because it is using all this on purpose, and is aware of its artificiality.
Before our meeting you asked me to think about what kind imagery I hate - I think it is exactly this. Theatre performances or Art Performances that are not playing with aesthetics, but just reproducing the obvious. Like you described, there are certain conditions on a theatre stage, and therefore very easily a lot of pictures of performances look exactly the same. And unfortunately these images are stuck in peoples heads, they overshadow what else is out there.

You can see what I mean by just googling:

It was a really nice time , sharing a conversation with you, having it running through the days, sharpening it, refining it. One day, I would like to have this kind of talk with Patti Smith.
Around the corner at a café, in the beggining of spring.

Did your study habits also adapt to being in Vilnius?

Actually! What can you share with us ? Any projects on the go?

of course. look forward to candlelight and vibration.
but for now, just this. my 'reference of the month'

Wonderful! What's the size of this piece ? It is very atmospheric.
Time is on hold here.

that's by James Whistler,
'Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket'

We can see the introduction to your subject here
my reference of the month is:

it's actually quite small. But that's the good thing about not knowing the real size: looking at it in a book or on the internet you can imagine it being huge!

that's by Raphael Dallaporta,
"Ruins"

I like this french photographer and the way he treats things. For example he made very neat pictures of antipersonel landmine, I like this using of the photographic image. Through the camera the object is loosing it's first attribute, first appropriation, which is killing.
For Ruins the visual seduces me first, how it echoes some callages of Gordon Matta Clark, Conectical Intersects, in the shape of it.
The projects explores the ground of of Afghanistan seeking for the trail of an old Aqueduc. This personal translation of the transformed territory seems interesting to me.

that's what you are working on at the moment?

Kind of, as I said earlier I try to place my work in direct relation with the city I am in, so territory research, urban one especially, interest me. Here he is treating about a forme Aqueduc which is quite a symbol for history of cities and their development!

For my part, I am chose to focus my research on surveillance cameras and how they criss-cross this whole city.
The big eye is constantly here, not even hiding, recording your movements, your motions.
It's something I want to use! Those images are good even sometimes. Plus, whenever I spot one, it raises so many questions about, security, trust, control.. And the territory it determinates. Psychologically.

Oh wow, cool! Didn't know that!

Last year I was at a Rammstein concert at the Waldbühne Berlin, which was a very profound experience. To see this band, who are playing with nazi imagery, in a stage based on ideal greek theatre built by NS regime for propaganda reasons. Three ages melting together in one evening.

haha