Rachida Triki, The Observer and the Observed.(Introduction to the anthology “The Body's Share”. Exposition at Kheireddine Palace, May 14- June 5, 2010)
Jan Laurens Siesling, The Trustee of Pascale Weber. (SuperPositions, book-DVD from Pascale Weber's artistic residence at La Pommerie in October 2005), éd. Dans Mon Carré/ La Pommerie, Limoge, 2005, 42 p.)
(texte traduit en néerlandais)
Marcin Sobieszczanski,
A Walk through Pascale Weber's Immemorial (Turbulences Vidéo #65, October 2009)
Immemorial: Experiments in Forgetting (Turbulences Vidéo #65, October 2009)
Antonella Tufano,
About Immémorial. (Turbulences Vidéo #65, October 2009)
Back to our Roots… (Turbulences Vidéo #65, December 2003)
The Non-conformist, Notes on Pascale Weber's Approach (Turbulences Vidéo #65, June 2004)
“ In her video, Pascale Weber sets the scene by using an interplay of glances between characters, in their violence and in their spontaneity. As if foretelling the destiny of contemporary images, the artist reiterates certain postures; and, using the phenomenon of imitation and an exchange of looks, she exposes both observing and being observed as preliminaries to affecting and being affected. She makes us consider what's at stake in a look for the construction of one's physical identity. “
“Where are we? Nowhere. In an imaginary space. [...] That is Pascale's specialty. Blurring our idea of space. Confounding our illusion of being at home. She is spiritually audacious, with both a sense of humor and a certain solemnity. She can transform your home into a void, removing your points of orientation, taking away its colors and its cherished familiar objects. [...] In her artistic obsession, she reminds us that we come from nowhere, and that is where we will return; that we are not who we think we are- not if we identify with our surroundings; that we are alone, even when we are together. And all of this at the same time.”
“[...] Marguerite Yourcenar noted in Memoirs of Hadrian that "time itself has nothing to do with it. It is always surprising to me that my contemporaries, masters as they consider themselves to be over space, apparently remain unaware that one can contract the distance between centuries at will."
Pascale Weber succeeds in proving this contraction of the distance between centuries, causing us to experience it ourselves through the medium of video [...].
Is it the absurdity of our existence, the tragedy of the one who seeks to understand, or an ironic game which takes place upon this stage? From these questions springs Pascale Weber's work, in keeping with the tradition of some of the greatest wielders of film. […] “
“ [...] In Dieppe, France; Pascale Weber worked on fishermen and their families- or rather worked in tight collaboration with them- creating a work which is in harmony with her past missions. We sense the concern for daily survival which affects the underprivileged, and also the warm attention given to objects (souvenirs, coasters, good-luck charms, etc.) which accompany their lives and even support them in a certain sense.
[…] Unable to find the right distance from which to film life on board, and perhaps feeling like an intruder in this unique world so powerfully influenced by masculine values, she decided to change her plan of attack, going so far as to abandon her camera on board where the images were recorded by the sailors themselves: raw images, naive, sometimes trivial with badly timed zooms and jerky tracking shots, filmed spontaneously, without esthetic pretension, which only intensifies their emotional impact. [...] this purposeful abandon of the camera [...] is a generous and creative reaction to the circumstances, and it would prove to open up new perspectives which a so-called professional point of view would have reduced or obscured [...] “
“ [...] The sceneograpy in remembrance of the past which Pascale Weber situates in the beginning of her works are reconstructions of bygone places [...] They can be considered current reconstructions because these terrains, reconquered by a Spinozen conatus, set something new into movement: our senses, our orientation, our motor skills, our insight and our emotional capacity. History, then, is not the past, but rather the act of retelling memorable events... [...] Living memory gives the tale an updated significance. [...] The act of retelling mingles the past and present, engaging also that which is new.
[...] From the very beginning, this work of art was designed to be shown on a system of drapes, multiscreen with changeable orientations. This means that the spectator's position- and therefore behavior- plays an active role in the exhibit. The spectators will hear snippets, see bits and pieces, and from these they must reconstruct their own story, using their own volition. “
“When an artist is at work, she forgets everything... yet recreates everything. In truth, she forgets nothing, and therein lies the paradox of how creation comes about. In her installation Immemorial, Pascale Weber brings us a composite experience (even working in video, she hasn't forgotten her roots as a painter and the image she creates is complex) teeming with sensory impressions, sometimes to the point of saturation.
She speaks of memory and forgetting, but also of the intimate, of solitude and fear [...] using little details [...] the sometimes incongruous or contradictory combinations of embedded images: of text, of voice-overs, diagrams, photos, paintings and other various documents.
This very abundance is known to all, and happens in the ordinary course of a human life- but how are we to remember? [...] The author directs us, nearly unconsciously by this very complexity, to pick out the elements which we then retain in order to create a continuity of thought, thereby participating in a poetic experience of forgetting.
Weber does not film narratives; she assembles blocks of interrupted movement, emotion concretized through image which is then rewoven in other ways [...] creating a work which sets us face to face with the incertitude of our own memory, and which shows us how much this very incertitude helps us define our place in the universe. “
“[...] As soon as we enter into this complex structure, we find ourselves at the center of a series of culminations, which carries us into the memory of both the author and of the people interviewed. This setup changes shape with the architecture of the space it inhabits, and can evolve with time and with the density of images, words, sounds, and lights which make up this installation. [...]
It is the realness of these impelling images, where words may intrude, where voices of witnesses- sometimes inaudible- overlap those of the author in her Durassien rhythm, which pulls us in and comforts us in this quest to remember.
This setup is for me a machine in the Greek sense of the word- a tool which allows a situation- or even a tragedy- to be resolved. The additional spatial dimension where multiple agents interact causes their own memories resurface. They above all want to create, reinvent, find, and reconstitute their fallible memories in order to get back what the Memory of time has erased. “
“In her search for truth, Pascale Weber, artist and explorer, stops long enough to unpack her suitcase in order to probe into the intimate. Invited for a few days, going from one home to the next, her voyage has continued since September. A quest to understand individuals, their homes, and their lives.
Discreet as an interior house painter, Pascale takes notes, photographs, and films the daily existence of her hosts, renewing the tradition of genre scenes by overcoming them. Her attentive eye gives poetry and value to the excerpts gathered. “
"The one sincere confession is the one we make indirectly - when we talk about other people."
(E.M. Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born.)
Pascale Weber never leaves her periodic host-families empty-handed. [...] She may ironically act as a sort of intruder, therefore taking her photos on tiptoe, perpetually unbalanced. She doesn't know beforehand where she will go; she doesn't know where she will sleep nor in whose home she will work... on her adventures she plays it by ear, following the circumstances and letting her intuition take the lead. Pascale Weber embodies uncertainty striving toward synergy. “
“Pascale Weber arrives at your house, in the middle of the family. She sets down her little blue suitcase, already full of objects given to her by other families. […] Pascale Weber settles into your home discretely, yet the serenity and the organization of the family are changed- an artist is rarely part of your everyday life. It's a paradoxical situation for the artist who is seeking to melt into a routine that is not her own, and where a family observes and tries to understand a set of actions that is not their own. Then, little by little, the artist outlines the borders of her terrain.
At the end of the year, Pascale Weber exhibits the work generated by this residence. […] The successive families all come together for a banquet which the artist has carefully prepared, as a good hostess should. This part of the show happens in an intimate space constructed at the interior of the exposition.
Only the host families are invited to the banquet- a luxury and a privilege!
The various realms are put back together in the once neutral space of the gallery- and everyone searches for their own space within the artist's. The situation has been reversed, it is the artist who piques the curiosity of the spectators and incites them to participate in the creation: they have become part of the artist's domain and must find their own space and meaning within. “