thismomenthasneverbeforebeen

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This moment has never before been.

A proposal to Atalante, in response to a call deadlining October 15, 2019.

Edition 2, completely new, by Catharine Cary.

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Project Description

In August 2015, I was invited to invest a former sheep’s pen, painted white, of a French chateau called Kerduel in Pleumeur-Bodou in Brittany, where the lore says that King Arthur gathered his knights around a round table, once.  I flew into Brest from Berlin, and was picked up by the entire family of the curator Brigit Ber.  I had sent painted drawings ahead, but had not yet chosen the theme of my 4 day investiture.  Improvisation being my art, this was not surprising, but in truth, I had started to wonder what I would do with the lovely white space and its attendant chateau gardens.  

Brigit’s husband was driving, I was in the front passenger seat, and the curator Brigit was in the back seat with her two daughters, Marie and Paule.  Out of the blue, Marie, Brigit's 5 and a half year old, asked Brigit what an "effort" was.    

Long pause.  As Brigit began to explain what an effort is, I had a lightening moment. This particular instance, this event, this present and this very second had never existed before.  Brigit was never a mother of daughters before, Marie had never been exactly this age, Paule the younger sister was listening so close, Manu the husband was driving, I was seated there, we were in this grumpy big station wagon, at a particular landmark on a road between Brest and their home.  Ce moment n’a jamais existé/This moment has never before been.

In the past, I had seen moments as a continuum of time - the now as a punctuation between the past and the future. That day, just before that moment, I saw us between two things that I did not necessarily imagine we could affect or change, even though we die trying.   But at that moment in the car, I saw that all of history existed perhaps but that that very moment, with everything I mentioned and everything I did not, was new.  And that the next moment would be new too.

I was flooded with images of information coagulating, passing, and being treated and understood in a computational data base.  Fast, faster, go faster because we know more.   It was big data and instant intuition, and what I call now the FAT moment which opened up POSSIBILITY.  

My heart widened ; I wanted to spread my arms like a preacher before a congregation. Possibility. Everything from then on there was not scripted and foreseen, that we could really create our own future.  

I decided to name my exhibition/performance “Ce moment n’a jamais existé” - “ This moment has never before been. ”

It was four days of creating a scenography, split second dances, water features in pouring rainstorms and sharp presence.  A suspended constellation with no worry for the future.

I am interested in those moments where intuition is in charge - the feeling looking learning of our possible is a question of delicate presence, and not of a decision to come.  In the space of infinitesimal time I’m passing through peripheral vision and fascinated by the fact that when I am tripped on a bicycle or on the curb about to fall, I can catch myself because my practice of improvisation has taught me a fat awareness.   Improvisation is a choreography of the present - of presence - at its best, it rolls up all the past moments and creates one in which everything is.   We are working in the non-doing of Carlos Castenada, of Buddhist thought and Hindu philosophy.  We are in the être, the being.

I propose to spend 4 days at Atalante, with either one or 4 evenings showing to the public.  The mornings will begin with the presentation of a place in Gothenburg, of historical or present importance, a place we do not know, the liquid beginning of an improvisation.  We may records its sounds, feels it’s ground, do headstands in the space and twirl if we feel like it.  Each afternoon, we will improvise a response to this visit, we will develop a Gothenburg inspired repertory of nothing and everything that can be presented to the public.   If it makes sense, we will present four evenings or perhaps just one full evening at the end.

I propose to make pertinent Gothenburg in this version of “Ce moment n’a jamais existé/This moment has never been.”

I will travel to Gothenburg with Jean-Brice Godet, a clarinettist, and noise maker/composer, with whom I just collaborated on a project called Singulier(S) Pluriel.  I recorded texts and he enrobed them with sounds that lent credence to an idea that we can hear plants growing.

I will travel to Gothenburg with Marie-Pierre Bonet, a performance artist quick on her feet and adept in ribbons, extremely able in improvisation.

I will hire a local location manager/artist, Benedikte Esperi to unearth 4 places in Gothenburg that we have never seen.

The new choreography will be a riveted attention to the present and presence. The experimental music will be sounds and instruments and voice that will come from what we see and hear and feel in the 4 local places chosen to inspire us. The scenography will use local material, and scissors to create a confetti that has never before been.   The dramaturgy will be improvised from A to Z. I’m not worried because this moment has never before been.

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London, 2019

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Catharine Cary - Artist’s Statement and CV

I am a noticer. And then I am lemon and salt. My work is to notice edges, borders, selvages and ravines, then to reveal and cherish the space between them and the objects they define. My work inhabits that space, or points a quiet finger to it, sharpening the glance of the onlooker to the present moment. With my body, and through my hand, I live at the crossroads of painting, calligraphy and performance, to break the promise of permanence, and render the silent risk of improvisation palatable. Revelling in the present, I cherish and nourish that instant of comprehension, the moment of shared understanding, the here and now of noticing. It might sound easy, ok, pay attention and get to it. But the noticing is like the zeros and ones of a supercomputer, adding and adjusting at a speed that is faster than consciousness. Each gesture is informed by everything we have done before, everything and everyone around us, and the idea of a future. When I dance, paint or tag, my heart and soul is breaking the speed of light. I am Catharine Cary, a visual performative artist, hello. My creative work is ephemeral or permanent, thus both. By refining and taking away, lining up, or not even putting something there, I work in flow and movement to seed presence and reveal the elegant obvious, I relish that moment of perfect risk, respecting the structure and letting what fall may.

Catharine Cary is a painter of spaces, a scenographer of sorts, an improvisor and a researcher.  After 20 years running big complicated projects in real estate, development aid and ironing, she threw it all over for art.  She is a vagabond who you can find most recently in Paris, London and Montreal.   Big moments of her career include presenting an installation in the Venise Biennale 2011, tagging the 5 star palace Hotel Crillon in Paris, and improvising at the Palais d’Iena with 2 hours notice.

website : Catharine Cary

Instagram : latagueuselegante

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Ce moment n’a jamais existé  - Chateau Kerduel, Pleumeur Bodou, France, 2015

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with Catharine Cary, Jean-Brice Godet and Marie-Pierre Bonet.  (photos by Jim Kirkhoff, Catharine Cary and Delphine Schwarz)

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Presence Perfect, Verscio, Switzerland, 2015.

Scenography du Baron, 2017.

yesterday morning.

Presence Perfect, Bellizona Festival, Switzerland, 2016.

What IIIF ? , Galeri 54, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2019.

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Details

Ce moment n’a jamais existé/This moment has never before been.

Edition 2/ A improvisation of the present - collecting and transmission of  moments, sounds, and intuitions in resonance with key places in Gothenburg.

with Catharine Cary(US/FR) Jean-Brice Godet (FR) Marie-Pierre Bonet (FR)

developed with

Galerie Motul-le, Chateau Kerduel, France

Simple technical requirements for sound, light and scenography.

Preferred Dates: May 25 - 30, 2020  - but open to others.

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Thank you for reading.  We look forward to hearing from you with any questions you may have.