A special day on Saturday the 30th of May, : PORTES OUVERTES À CAP 15 (OPEN DOORS DAY AT CAP 15)
Cap 15, originally a small joinery business (long ago) but a huge space and many houses and sheds,
next to the shopping street of Saint Antoine, six minutes walk from HÖFN, was bought in 1998 by two artists…
The place was far too big for them ! They invited friends (5, 10, 12...) who became a real collective of artists and worked hard for two years restoring the buildings and transforming the outdoor space.
An association , « La jetée », is founded as a support for all artistic events on the spot.
This sort of artists' little village where, from 2000, some work, some live and work, babies and works were born,
projects and men gushed out and/or died -dear and wonderful Sydney- some left, some went in,
this collective will grow and evolve, in total freedom, as life goes by, suiting the whims and fancies of each, yet sharing common tasks, decisions, goals now and then...
The adventure could have ended after ten years, when the owners of the whole place decided to leave it, temporarily, or for good, heading for new horizons…. AND sell it …
The other « Capquinzians » will prove then their vitality, and, little by little, most of them will buy plots and buildings out of this huge space, soon joined by new artists looking for workshops and/or unusual housings to live in...
That « new » (or renewed) Cap 15, showed in a magnificent, artistic and festive way what it had become last year, with a first OPEN DOORS DAY AT CAP 15, and again : this year 2016.
Dominique Poulain, (coordinator of HÖFN association and writing residency) was, years back, a member of the association La Jetée,
took an active part in restoring Cap 15, gardening in Cap 15, participating in the organisation of many events…
As an old friend and neighbour of Cap 15 in the old days, as a faithful neighbour and partner to-day, she -and HĂ–FN - were invited to join in for this second OPEN DOORS DAY AT CAP 15.
For this first entry into the program of that DAY (which started, of course at 15.15, that Saturday afternoon, and ended very late at night… the following morning really!),
HĂ–FN pulled out of its hat, almost at the last minute, a proposal which was supposedly simple and easy to set up:
listening to, and watching (within a time, situation, scenery/decor, which looked paradoxically intimate and old-fashioned, like being in your Icelandic nanny's front room)
the Icelandic band CRYPTOCHROME ;
Alas, this very name, CRYPTOCHROME , was written in all possible manners -Chryptochrome, Chriptochrome…- except the right one, thanks to Dominique Poulain, (coordinator of HÖFN association!) in almost all communication material!)
Three songs by the band CRYPTOCHROME and three videos by Logi Hilmarsson were presented :
Pleasant view, Clappo et Playdoug.
The visitors could watch and listen to the first two videos with tablet and headphones, and the third one, which had been shot in VR 360 °, with a virtual reality head set.
With the help of :
- the Art School in Aix en Provence , which lent the technological equipment we needed,
- Jean Cristofol who teaches there and created all sorts of useful connections,
- Alexandre, a fourth year student in the School who, before and during the afternoon the 28th of May provided more than useful technical assistance,
- all the artists of Cap 15 (and their friends!), their incredible organisation, both wonderfully professional AND wonderfully friendly,
the HĂ–FN event (rather intimate, as always), offered a glimpse, a flavour, a taste of Iceland (the visitors could sit, wait, watch others experiencing the videos while eating delicious toasts with Icelandic salmon and dill sauce)
and had his own very special success among all that happened at the same time in the afternoon (local Cap15 radio, exhibitions : paintings, silk screen prints, drawings, texts, sculptures, videos ...
later on in the evening, and late at night, a, very lively and funny blind test with plenty of prizes (the Saint Antoine shopkeepers played a great role there and proved a good sense of humour!), three concerts, mad dancing floor…
About 50 persons (may be more?) of all ages (among them Gerður Gudmunsdóttir and Þór Whitehead, our residents at HÖFN at that time - see HÖFN: WHAT IS IT? WHAT'S GOING ON?),
listened to and watched with great interest the 3 music videos Logi Hilmarsson made for CRYPTOCHROME ;
the band, as the film maker's work clearly appealed to most of the visitors.
Obviously, « Playdough » that one could watch and listen to with a virtual reality head set and very good headphone,
thus enabling a deep and very physical immersion into sound and image, aroused a very special curiosity and obvious fascination, even for some… enthusiasm...
b] /b
Some pictures of a walk throughout Cap 15 at the very beginning of the afternoon
Some pictures of the HĂ–FN (tiny but successful) event...
... some (not ALL!) of those who came to experience this moment between Music and... Very Special Images:
Sorry for the BAD spelling !... it should habe been: CRYPTOCHROME!
Pleasant view, ou bien Clappo, ou bien encore Playdoug ??
Some pictures of this day and evening OPENDOORS AT CAP 15
Some pictures of a walk throughout Cap 15 at the very beginning of the afternoon
Some pictures of this day and evening OPENDOORS AT CAP 15
Some pictures of the HĂ–FN (tiny) event.../size