Video mapping made during a creation residency organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles / Video Mapping European Center as part of the Video Mapping Festival #8.
► Les Yeux du Nord
The non-homeless city dwellers see the homeless persons superficially, with peripheral vision, through the corner of their eye, as nameless speechless shadowy silent figures in the city landscape. Majority of city residents fear direct contact with the homeless minority because they are afraid to acknowledge a frightening possibility of ending up themselves in the homeless situation.
The homeless persons however cannot afford such distance, detachment, and passive perception. Out of the existential and survival necessity they must watch, observe – with sharp focus and critical clarity – not only their own condition, but also the ignorant, apathetic, repressive, and ambivalent condition of “home-full” city dwellers and of the larger, more fortunate world around them.
In this situation and under such conditions the homeless persons – aware or unaware – seem to function as a conscious and knowledgeable “eye” of the city.
With such experience, knowledge and perceptive eye, and when received an access to media, many homeless persons wish to share and speak publicly of what they see in an articulate voice.
In this video mapping, they appropriate the heights and architectural splendor of the Voix du Nord building and seemingly “wear” its facade as a monumental mask; because it is easier to publicly speak the truth of one’s harsh lived experience when wearing a mask in which one appears part private person and part public building.
Let’s hear that what the homeless persons see, how they see the city and how, in their own eyes, they are seen and unseen.
Direction: Krzysztof Wodiczko, assisted with Gilles Paté
With testimonies from: Mado, Sébastien, Stella, Steven
Shooting: Gilles Paté
Sound recording: Gauthier Cauvin
Editing: Gilles Paté
Media stabilisation: Patrick Grandi
Video mapping tour organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles.
With the support of the Hauts-de-France Region, DRAC Hauts-de-France, Métropole Européenne de Lille, the City of Lille and Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.
The work by Krzysztof Wodiczko is made during a creation residency organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles as part of the Video Mapping European Center.
With the support of the European Union (Europe is committed to the Hauts-de-France Region through the European Regional Development Fund), the Polish Institute and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, as part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2025, and White Rabbit Pictures.
With the support of La Voix du Nord.
Creations supported by the Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.
