"ET VOILÁ, ET VOLER" - ORLEANS, FRANCE

“ About movement, the wind and letting yourself go”
LOIRe RIVER, ORLEANS - FRANCE 2023

Back again in France, more specifically in the Loiret department, south of Paris and very close to Orleans.
This time I traveled for a different kind of project and a great opportunity to work on a new format. The project was curated by UAA and consisted of the intervention of a sail from a traditional boat. A boat that would sail through the Orleans canal in Vitry-aux-Loges, a small town that celebrates every year a festival called "Escale en fete", to give value to water and life on the banks of the Loire River. 

For this project I was selected together with Lemon, an artist from Marseille. We would each paint one of the boats sails during our residency. We stayed in the small canal-side town called Fay-aux-Loges. It was not the first time that I have worked on the fauna that lives on the banks of this river and for this project that was the main topic again. More specifically the birds. I selected two of them, the common tern and the black-headed gull.

The creative process lasted about 5 days. We work inside an old market located in the town itself were the sails were hanging.

Using a ship's sail as a canvas was powerful enough. My intention was to work again on the concept of movement, but this time I sought to create a result so that both the object itself, its function and the mural would dialogue. The birds moved from one side to the other, in a kind of journey, growing in number and size, flying in a flock accompanied by the wind itself, which they use to save energy, like a sailing ship does.
Using the sail cloth as a background and seeking to let light pass between the lines, I created the work. Improvisation and composition, from less to more until I found a point of balance where I finished my work, and crossing my fingers so that once hanging from the ship's mast I could become part of it without clashing too much.

I returned to Madrid for a few days until the festival took place the following weekend (16th sept), where we could finally enjoy the work done and celebrate it. The sails were to be inaugurated during Escale en fête, a festival that bids farewell to summer in the Loiret department. Everything revolves around the water of the Orleans Canal and the traditions of the area. Music, food, market, workshops and a very good atmosphere in a rural area.
This was the result of the project:

It was a very special day, with a clear sky that gave us the luck to be able to see how the sun did its work and its light filtered in behind the sails of the boats.
I felt very lucky to participate, to be able to experience it and have the opportunity to be part of this project. It's one of those things that only happens once in life.


Many thanks to everyone who has been part of this project and especially to Seb for his trust, as always.
Process photographs by Marion Photographie.