Virusland

Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon

Film (52 mn) and performance

2022

FILM (52 mn)

Virusland 2020 describes a year of pandemic and the emergence of a new form of life, which transforms our habits and gestures.

On television, presidents declare war on an invisible enemy. City centers are empty. In the streets, stray dogs chase drones. Preachers exorcise the virus and send it back to hell. Epidemiologists invade TV sets, while conspiracy theorists rewind the film of reality. The vaccination campaign is launched.

We were caught up by lockdown in a disused seaside resort. We look at the images circulating on the Internet and keep a chronicle of the seaside. There are twelve episodes like twelve months haunted by the same beach.

PERFORMANCE (20 mn)

Return to Virusland. The two directors discuss the editing of their film. They propose alternative sequences, and other possible futures. Manipulating the images, they act like conspiracists only to show the weirdness of the reality we have been through. They use filters that transform them into fictional characters, archetypal voices that embody our contradictory feelings during this pandemic.

Excerpts

Virusland, Paris, Le Cerf, Parution octobre 2020. Illustration Louise Druhle.

Diffusion

Virusland 2020, Welcome to Planet B, Ars Electronica, Linz, Autriche, 2023, https://ars.electronica.art/planetb/en/virusland/

Virusland 2020, first screening, La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, cycle imagepointnet, June 16th, 2022

Performance, Columbia University, Conference Reshaping Digital Identities, May 24th, 2022

Performance, La Générale, Conference Écran Dedans Dehors, December 10th, 2022

Performance, Le Bal, L'image à l'épreuve des machines. October 26th, 2021

Performance, Zombi Théorie, Semaine de la philosophie, Les Ateliers Jeanne Barret, Marseille, May 3rd 2021

Performance, Alphabetville, Laboratoire des écritures numériques, Marseille, April 9th, 2021

Performance, Visions et recherche-création, programme Parvis I-Site Future sur les Imaginaires futuristes de la ville, Université Gustave Eiffel Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, April 9th, 2021

Performance, Zeppelin Universität, Apocalypse and World Salvation, Friedrichshafen, Allemagne, March 23rd, 2021

Performance, Programme Antivirus, p-node.org, May 8th, 2020

Annexes

Credits

Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon

Editing : Pierre Cassou-Noguès et Gwenola Wagon

Co-editing : Delphine de Blic

Acting : Marie-Bénédicte Cazeneuve

With : Cécile Bicler, Delphine de Blic, Mathieu Cloarec, Hervé Coqueret, Stéphane Degoutin, Louise Druhle, Aniara Rodado

Music : Méryll Ampe

Sound mixing : Jules Wysocki

Graphic design : Raphaël Bastide et Louise Druhle

Production : Lissandra Haulica, irrévérence Films

Co-production : Dispositif pour la création multimédia, CNC - Dicréam 2020

Aide au développement du CNAP Image/mouvement 2021