Changes

Dear friends,

I hope you are all still ok.
Jello and I are in the last days of our stay here in Maumont, we will leave for the Netherlands this Sunday.
We are talking a lot about what direction the project might take.

At this moment the Perigord is still a yellow zone but around this area it is all orange/red; as it is in Spain, in the region of Lisbon, the western half of Netherlands, the UK.
Soon it will be orange or red in this region here too. It is not difficult to predict that. And even if it is not, almost all of us should officially go in quarantine when we arrive here.
To be honest, I am afraid finally nobody will be able to visit this area in the months to come. So maybe we should make a turn in our approach.
As long as we aim for the original plans the project asks for more and more concessions , so it might be a good idea to reformulate the project within the current circumstances.
Maybe we can turn this situation of compromises into a strong new starting point.

The project was focussing on the difference between the physical village and our very ephemeral presence as human beings. The text on the website:

On the other hand the place is still what it always has been: earth remains earth and stone remains stone. The Biennale de Momon starts from there but the physical village will only be used as a starting point. Not by changing anything but, on the contrary, by keeping it the way it is, by maintaining continuity. The project is about the thin line between two sides of reality, mass and energy: air touches the earth, the sun moves over the land. Objects are illuminated, heated and perceived but not changed.
The project might consist of (….) everything that can live online without actually touching the physical ground. In the village there will be no objects that refer to the project, apart from a sign with the web address. La Biennale de Momon will be approachable online only.

Now in fact we still have this contrast between physical reality and energy:
but instead of us visiting the physical (Maumont). the virus now visits us, it holds us where we are, we ourselves are Momon in a way. Momon was of course mainly a metaphore to start with.
This is our project upside down. Maybe Momon now stands for the impossibility to leave, the being controlled by this energy, the virus.
If we turn it into the right direction I think we might not even be that far distanced from the original starting point.

Everything we can do will be online, but that was the idea from the start.
I hope you can agree with the changes this new situation brings. The work already done might often still be used I assume. We should keep the same deadline, 1st of January.
Please let us all know as soon as possible if you can agree with this switch of direction, if you can work on like this.

I think we can keep the date of the symposium in Dordrecht (June 20). Maybe a lot is changed by then, a vaccin might be available. If not, we will see and again talk about that somewhere in spring.
I hope to be able to get permission to turn some of the money of the travel expenses into fees. I will keep you informed about that.

If you send a reply, please sen it to all, to keep it an open talk.

Warmly,
Frans