light_water_city

[2001]
I discover that the Canal St Martin area is undergoing major changes. Life there is different, the canal cleaves and connects, it’s like living in a micro-habitat. One morning I hear on the radio that the Seine - the river crossing Paris –  is clean again and that fish are back. The President of France himself has promised to swim in it.

[The idea]
Where there is a fish there is a fisherman. I checked it myself. As a matter of fact, though there are some big red and white signs forbidding fishing I saw some fishermen all along the canal. They are often equipped with some very professional gear and hold on to their fishing rods with a posture both artificial (we’re in the middle of the city) and realistic (there are some fish there afterall…). But I’m still not convinced that they’ll really pull some fish out of the water. After all what’s the point of fishing in the middle of the city ? Would anyone dare to eat the poor fish who took the bait ? In my mind their doing is a strange staged action, a symbol of an activity that finds its full meaning somewhere else. I’d rather think that those fishermen – fishing along the urban portion of the Seine - are there to remind us that the city holds a tight – somewhat special – relation with its river and the canals running through it.

[2009]
Back on Canal St Martin. I hear some interesting news : the fish are there, even some carnivorous species - or so the fishermen tell me. The ban on fishing was dropped – except at night – and a new trend is up. It’s called « street fishing », an urban, dynamic, young version of the traditional activity of fishing. This means new life around the water and a new meaning to my project. 

[The installation]
30 fishing rods are arranged in sequence  and secured to the ground by a concrete cube. The lines are in electro-luminescent fiber. They dive and fade into the water, in tension. Some fishermen cast their lines over the surface of water which pulses at the city rhythm. Every concrete cube include a small sound system which spreads the sound of the « light-water-city » suite. This original soundtrack was written in collaboration with Gino Dal Soler, a friend and a musicologist and with Stefano Pilia, young and talented musician and composer.

The « fishing » starts at sunset and ends in the middle of the night.

...

This project has been supported by the Fédération Nationale pour la Pêche en France and Pezon & Michel, Street fishing concept.