works sited
"Fourdrinier Machine Interlude"
Aurelien Froment
February 18th - April 30th, 2012
"Fourdrinier Machine Interlude" is a film consisting of one long tracking shot of a miniature Fourdrinier papermaking machine. The film runs slowly along the length of the elaborate industrial device and shows the transformation of raw wood pulp into rolls of paper. The even movement of the camera is accompanied by the voice of a young and earnest reader who shares a brief history of papermaking and the influence of the Fourdrinier Machine on this narrative. At moments, her voice hesitates and the occasional pronunciation slip (“deh-devdevihsing-divising”) makes us aware of the oral incongruities of language but perhaps more notably we are reminded that translating the past into seamless and objective history is a difficult and awkward, if not impossible, task. Whether at the root or chain end of the Fourdrinier, going upstream or downstream, the back and forth of gears and evolving paper evoke the social, cultural and technological advances that turn pulp into money, craft into industry and geography into history.
For Works Sited, Froment shares the paper version of the film in the form of a two-sided leporello, an accordion book, with the film’s narration transcribed to text and translated into Spanish and Japanese alongside the original English. The book was designed by London based collective åbäke as part of In Alphabetical Order, a series of publications in which Froment’s works are translated to printed materials.
Aurélien Froment (b. 1976) was born in Angers, France and currently lives in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at ERBA in Rennes and Nantes. Also certified as a professional projectionist his work has developed through exhibitions, films, publications and performances. Solo presentations were realized at Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Project Arts Centre, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Palais de Tokyo, Gasworks, CCA Wattis. Group exhibitions include the Tate Britain, Nam June Paik Centre, Basel Kunsthalle, Mudam, Centre Pompidou, Gwangju Biennale, Sculpture Centre, Lyon Biennale and just recently, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Book design by åbäke Hand coated, printed and folded by Dominic Turner at Exhibit A (Dublin) English translation: Deke Dusinberre Spanish translation: Jessica Julieta Díaz Mendoza Japanese translation: Keiko Imai Music score: Justin Carroll
Further information can be found at motivegallery.nl, marcellealix.com and dentdeleone.co.nz