This collaborative video poem comes from the artistic project Free Your Navel which documents, questions and illustrates the theme of the navel. The founding scar of our coming into the world, the belly button is a part of you that tells a lot about us, our societies, our desires, our taboos, while it no longer has any functional utility. Hidden or shown, egocentric or offered in sharing, it occupies a special place in our representations. An ambivalence which is found in its so-called insignificance yet so significant. Starting from a participatory visual collection launched on social networks, the narrative form of the video poem testifies to this versatility as a social and psychological construction of what lies behind this navel, namely ourselves. This personal quest, this biological story, is therefore illustrated by the diversity of participants’ contributions. It testifies to the very diversity of this shared humanity, but also to the moral rules with variable geometry surrounding it. It is in this sense that these liberated navels are freely displayed, that of creation.
Born in Provence in April 1969, I have been working in culture for 30 years and currently co-directs a cooperative that manages a third place. I have done radio shows, organized concerts and festivals, edited magazines, a design studio, a micro-publishing house, etc. Self-taught, my career was built over the meetings. From my media experience, I have a strong taste for short forms, whether text, music or video. Artistically, if I write, do collage, film or play music, poetry remains my path. So, having started my apprenticeship through writing and graphic design, in 1994 I started playing in a rock band (Mike Hey No More), then in 2004 I discovered the dialogue between words, sounds and images live in the Multimedia Trio Ana. Since then, I have been focusing on works where the verb explores different media on stage (Printemps des poètes, BPI Pompidou, Capc Bordeaux, Jimmachine’s tour in Japan, …) or in devices (Chevaux 2 Vent, Viral…). …). In recent years I have mainly devoted myself to collages and video poetry. My audio-visual creations were presented in England (Liberated Worlds/Bristol Poetry Festival, Pallant House Gallery, Swindon Poetry Festival, Cadence), Belgium (Antwerp Filmpoem Festival), the USA (Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival, Viewster, Toff, Gnarled Oak, International Mobile Film Festival), Lithuania (Tarp festival), Ukraine (Cyclop Videopoetry International Festival), Greece (International Film Festival Poetry), Australia and New Zealand (Mina), Brazil (Mobgraphia), Spain (Sinestesia), in Morocco (Rencontres du carnet de voyage de Meknès), in Byelorussia (velcom Smart Film festival), but also in France: Vidéoformes, Instants Video, Ciné Poèmes etc. Otherwise I got the Coup de Coeur Prix du Carnet de Voyage Numérique in the Rendez-vous du Carnet de voyage of Clermont-Ferrand for my filmpoem Yama Sakura. My mini poetic space opera « Le chant éteint d’Epsilon » was also awarded the Best Experimental Film Award at the Blood Stained Indie Film Festival in Japan. For me, video poetry is that moment of grace in which images convey to music an imaginary symbiosis of the text, giving them a new poetics. A quest somehow…
